Saturday was Adam’s fourth birthday and we celebrated Dr. Seuss-style. First, we went out to breakfast at IHOP where Adam had “Horton Hears a Who” pancakes and Grandpa Baker had Green Eggs and Ham. To celebrate his birthday, the staff sang “Happy Birthday” to Adam and gave him ice cream (yeah, on your birthday it’s ok to have ice cream for breakfast). Then, we saw the Horton Hear A Who movie (an excellent movie and we highly recommend it).  We headed home for pizza, cake,  ice cream and, of course, present opening.

 Presents!    Aunt Dawn holds Ally back

 Cake!     Double chocolate, yum!

It’s been a very busy last couple of months. Although we’ve done a lot, we hardly have any pictures to show for it. You can thank Santa, who forgot to bring me a digital camera last Christmas (or perhaps I was naughtier than I thought!).

Here’s a pic of one of Ally’s new tricks. We have occasionally been letting her feed herself (more like we’ve been letting her cover herself in yogurt). She’s a big fan of yogurt, spaghetti, fruit puffs and cheerios. Her top two teeth are popping through to join the two on the bottom. Biting is another of her new tricks, but one I’m hoping she grows out of soon. On one Saturday, she started sitting up on her own. The next day, she started crawling. And now she’s pulling herself up and, with help, taking little steps on her tiny little feet.

And, of course, she’s looking absolutely adorable.

Adam’s been pretty busy, too. He’s been taking a Preschool Sports Sampler class at the YMCA. So far, he’s learned about soccer, football and wall climbing (he went up about five feet) and will cover basketball and teeball soon. He’s been busy at “school” trying to catch the leprechaun and learning his letters. He’s been doing more schoolwork than I have since my student teacher finally took over. It’s been a really rough year ; )

We went to Butterfly Night at Meijer Garden earlier this month and had a great time. In addition to getting a fake tattoo, creating a paper butterfly and eating lots of cookies, Adam really enjoyed the walk through the conservatory in the dark. We used flashlights to find the sleeping butterflies (they hang like bats). Next time, we’ll bring the camera!

  Today is my third snow day this week, and the twelfth so far this year. Snow days are great in the winter, but not so great when we have to make them up at the end of the year.  If this keeps up, I’ll be working until the 4th of July! These pics are from the weekend, when we only had about six inches of snow. Today, Adam and I went out and the snow is literally up to his knees. It was too deep to even get the sleds down the hill. When we climbed the big pile from the snowplow, I fell in all the way up to my waist and almost lost my boots!

 Hmm… Ally’s not so sure about this
 Adam won this sled race 
The snow days have given us plenty of time to get projects done, including the valentines for Adam’s friends at school. He wanted to give them something “funny, like Mike from Monsters, Inc.” What do you think of the final projects?

Of course, I have to end the blog with a cute Ally pic

It’s been pretty cold this month. Luckily, Ally got this new sweater from Aunt Devon to keep her warm (Aunt Devon knitted it herself. She’s so crafty!)
 We’ve had quite a few snow days (don’t hate me ’cause I’m “lake effect”). Although it’s fun to have the day off, we’re all starting to get a little cabin fever. To stave off the winter blues, we headed to Meijer Garden for “Preschool Night.” We were given clues to figure out the mystery animal. We listened to stories about it, played games related to it, and even had some snacks like the animal would eat (I love gummy worms!).
 Adam put on a puppet show with friends of the mystery animal. I liked the part where we walked through the conservatory in the dim light, but Adam’s favorite part was looking at feathers with a big magnifying glass. Finally, there was the big reveal . . . of tropical birds.
 Adam got to pet Bo (and yes, that woman’s hair is purple)
Ally enjoyed riding around in the stroller, even though her favorite mode of transportation lately has been rolling around (still not crawling, yet). This morning I heard her cry out and discovered she managed to roll herself up in a blanket.
 Guess I better keep a better eye on her!

Here’s a pic thrown in just because I think she’s so cute.
 

Whew! It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Here’s how the Bakers celebrated Christmas this year.

 Santa Express
 On December 15, Santa took a train into Sparta. We were there, in the freezing cold, to see the big guy get off the train. Adam was a little bit intimidated by him, and Ally (as usual) slept through most of it.

                Ally’s awake!

Santa’s House
One of the very cool things about living in Sparta is that Santa has his very own house here. In December, he hangs out there and the kids can stop by and tell him their wishes while parents can take all the pictures they want - for free! Adam asked for a super hero cape “to keep the bad guys away from Mommy.” Awww.

Christmas # 1
To keep from having to do a lot of traveling this year, we invited our families to celebrate Christmas at our house. The first one was the Sunday before Christmas with Gran, Grandpa Mike, Aunt Mel, Uncle G, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Devon (and Gabby, the dog).
We had a great time! Unfortunately, it had to end early due to yet another snow storm.
 Ally loved opening presents

 Cool presents!   

Christmas #2 & #3
Finally, Christmas morning arrived and Adam couldn’t wait to see if Santa came (you know he’s been to your house because the cookies have been eaten and the milk is gone). Within fifteen minutes, the presents had been opened and a game of CandyLand was underway.
 Ally got a sippy cup from Adam 
 Adam got the coolest super hero cape - Thanks BCN

After lunch, we drove across state to celebrate Christmas with Papa Dan, Aunt Danie, Aunt Mel, John, Joey and Patrick. (We were halfway there when we realized we didn’t have the camera.) Ally got a great baby kitchen and Adam got the pirate ship of his dreams. We then headed over to Aunt Patty’s for visiting with a lot more family. I won two games of Bingo! We drove home that night and spent the whole next day in our PJ’s.

Christmas #4 (We’re almost done)
On the Saturday after Christmas, we had another Christmas party at our house. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Dawn, Uncle Jim, Brandon, Jack, Ben and Josh enjoyed our “Mexican Fiesta” meal and lots more presents.

 Ally is the only girl on this side of the family!
 I love this bib!
We had a nice visit from Uncle Rich and Aunt Jan, who brought Rick, Stacie and cute little Maddie, with them (they were here from Georgia).

Today, we all slept in!

Monkey Do. Monkey Get in Trouble, too.

Here’s Adam with Maelin Gleeson. He picked out the matching monkey shirts (according to the Chinese calendar, they’re both monkeys!)

We’re on our third snow day already this year! I haven’t worked a full week since I started back after Thanksgiving.

The Spartans make Ally drool.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the kids on Thanksgiving (and Thanksgiving II). If you’ve got pics, please send them to me. (Santa, I’ve been a good girl. Please bring me a digital camera).

Act 1
(Setting: Steffens Farm in Sparta) On a bright October day, the Baker family headed out to get their Halloween pumpkins. After much deliberation, Adam chose two big ones for him and Daddy, and two small ones for Ally and Mommy.

Act 2
Adam refused to carve the pumpkins until just before Halloween because he’d heard from a friend that pumpkins “get stinky” after they’re carved. Mommy painted faces on the two little pumkins while Adam and Daddy carved the two big ones. Adam wanted a “mean” face on his.

(fake candles rock!)

Act 3
(Setting: M & M Day Care/Preschool)
The school Halloween party was the day before Halloween. This year, Mommy got to attend with Ally. The kids dressed up, played games, read stories and got candy. Adam was Mike from Monsters Inc (of course) and Ally was a little ladybug.

Adam’s dancing! Ally loves to party.

Act 4
It was a cold and stormy night. . . Luckily, Adam finished his trick or treating in the neighborhood (both houses) before the downpour started. One of the neighbors gave out full-size candy bars!
(Love our gargoyle?)

The Baker family headed to Howard City for dinner, more trick or treating and helping the grandparents hand out candy. Adam found Grandpa’s “Monster Head” to be a little scary, but got over it pretty quickly. A good time was had by all.

My friend Kristine (Kris with a K Photography) took our family photos a few weeks ago, on the hottest day in October! The kids were well behaved, but they refused to smile at the same time.

The pics were taken on the Muskegon River.

Adam and Brian had to skip some stones.

Some great shots of Adam.

Kris also took some solo shots of Ally a few days before the family shoot because I didn’t like the “professional” ones we had done at Sears. Ally’s dress was a gift from my colleague, Angie. We’ve dubbed it the “Viking Prom Dress” because it’s black and gold.

I love this one!

Here’s Ally and me at the Howard City Harvest Festival. As you can tell, she’s sleeping right through the fun again. Adam enjoyed the giant inflatable slide.

We’re saddened by the fact that our neighbors, The Wangens, had to move away. They were a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed playing together. They did, however, leave us with an awesome parting gift. They gave us their cool swingset and we set it up over the weekend. Adam’s favorite part is the fort section, with the climbing wall.

Ally loves it when her big brother “reads” to her

Here’s my newest favorite Ally pic.

Isn’t she just absolutely adorable?