Willem Turns 2

On April 10th Willem turned 2 years old. We can't believe how the last 2 years have flown by. And just like the day of his arrival, he entered his 3rd year of life surrounded by family and friends. We had a small Train themed birthday party at our local park with some of Willems friends from playgroup along with the family. He was in heaven and ever since believes we should spend everyones birthday at the park. A couple weeks after Willem's birthday, he just didn't understand why Paw Paw wanted to go to dinner at a restaurant for his birthday rather than the park:)

Easter

Grandma came to visit for Willem's Birthday and was able to celebrate Easter with us. This was the first Easter where Willem participated in all the Easter festivities. We decided to go to the Easter Egg Hunt at Encanto Park so he'd have other kids around and he seemed to really enjoy the festivities, especially watching the train.

Grandma also made a special Easter cake with Willem--the jelly beans were a big hit!

March Part 1

There has been a lot of excitement for our family the last few months and there will be even more in the months to come... This past March we found out that Jason will be completing his 5 year General Surgery Program here in Phoenix. With Ellie's arrival quickly coming upon us we found a house and started nesting. We're way behind in posting, so we'll see how far we get caught up this weekend:)
Willem making a congratulations poster for Daddy on Match Day.

Willem loves trains so we took the metro rail downtown to the art walk. The train ride was a big hit!

Pre-haircut picture from Willem's 1st swim lesson of the year. He took lessons for 3 months and is super comfortable in the water now.

Willem's 1st Haircut. Willem could have cared less what the woman was doing as he got to watch a Thomas the train movie and sit in a fun car shaped seat. Everytime we pass the salon he points and says Haircut, Thomas...

Visit to LA Part 3

On the last leg of our trip we were able to spend time with our good friends the Nespers and meet the newest additions to their family, Callan and Surrey. We also were able to spend a couple of days up north visiting The Sobrinos. Here are a few pictures from our adventures.

Visit to LA Part 2: Disneyland!!

We took Willem to Disneyland for the 1st time in March and it was a hit! We checked out A Bugs Life at California Adventure and did the Casey Jr Ride at Disneyland many times. We all had a great time!

Visit to LA in March part 1

In March we took a family vacation to LA and acted like tourists. We went to a family favorite, the beach and Willem loved the fact that there was a playground there. We also checked out the sites in Cerritos, going to the infamous library and Heritage Park. Cerritos definitely has a lot to offer! We also were able to have dinner with Aunt Pat and Uncle Rand, which was great.

Willem's first haircut

Willem got his first haircut today. He was nervous at first, but he warmed up.

Our Visit to Ohio (2-24 thru 3-1)

We had a great visit with the Barnes' and Grandma. I didn't take a ton of pictures as most of our time was really just spent catching up. I did capture a couple photos from our trip to the Science Center. You really liked all the interactive activities and climbing on the different displays. We had a great time!


Playing with this train set and your cousin Emma was definitely a hit!

We ventured outdoors a couple of times to play in the snow. It was the first time you had walked in snow and you did a great job. You liked watching Jeff and Emma go sledding and you even went down the big hill with Jeff one time, by the end of the hill you were having a great time.

Grandma also fulfilled her promise to take you bowling. You weren't a huge fan of throwing the ball, but you liked cheering everyone else on and loved the game room with the air hockey game and a bunch of other fun games with lights.

The trip ended too quickly but we enjoyed the time we had!

February 2010 in Review

February started out with a wonderful visit from our good friends, Jennifer and Isabella Renk. We had a fun day hanging out at our house and having a picnic at the park. And the next day we met up with them again at the Railroad Park for more fun.

You made your first valentines cards for a Valentines Day party we went to with our friends. You liked coloring on the cards and adding the stickers.

You love going to the library! You really like listening to the stories, but your favorite activites are playing with the shakers, the parachute game and catching the bubbles. This winter we participated in the Winter Reading Program and we read enough books that you received several prizes including a new book about trucks. You were so excited as the librarian gave you your bookmark and coloring sheet, etc.

Last month we also started going to a music class at the rec center. You are fairly reserved in class except for when Ms. Sarah asks you to come and get a shaker or a bell. You hop up and run over excitedly to collect the item and run back. You do a great job at following her instructions!For Valentines Day we spent the day as a family. We started out with a special breakfast including the delicious fruit that Grandma and Granta Pamela sent. And then we headed to the park. You've really got an arm now for feeding the ducks, but they must have been pretty full already because they just would not come over to us that day. Later on in the month we went to the Zoo with a friend and we actually were able to feed the giraffes. Didn't get a great action shot here, but you get the idea. We were both fascinated by how close they were to us but you weren't scared at all, you just looked at them in amazment.

At the end of the month we went to Columbus to visit the Barnes' and Grandma... More on that in our next post.