Merry Christmas!!...Eve Eve

We celebrated Christmas as a family yesterday.  It was so much fun to see Rebecca open presents and really get into things this year.  She didn't do a whole lot with the first couple gifts.  But once she got the hang of it she had to help open every single gift under the tree :)  Rebecca had so much fun afterwards playing with all of her new toys.  She was pretty wired the rest of the evening.  Rebecca got some neat things for Christmas this year:

Train tent/tunnel
Sleepy Dora doll w/ book and hair brush
Wooden animal puzzle w/ sounds
Dora dishes
Wand
Play food
A couple books
ABC fishing game
Play oven
Measuring spoons
GVSU sweatshirt
Mini basketball hoop

We are very blessed.  And we had so much fun sharing gifts as a family and remembering our greatest gift of all...the birth of Jesus Christ.

We are excited to celebrate with our extended relatives over the next week.

Away In a Manger

Yesterday afternoon after Rebecca got up from her nap we realized we had nothing going on/nothing that needed to get done.  So we decided to head out to Zeeland to a live nativity scene at the Critter Barn.  It is a small family farm that raises animals as a hobby and caters to children.  Every year they put on a live nativity scene.  It was very well done.  We heard the background of what life was like when Jesus was born.  We saw great pictures from Israel.  We heard a narrative about the events leading up to Jesus' birth.  And of course we saw the live nativity and heard the story of baby Jesus.  Afterwards we got to look at all of the animals.  There were goats, sheep, bunnies, ducks, chickens, cats, chicks, turkeys and a calf.

Rebecca loved the whole thing!  She sat as still as could be through the whole story.  And she enjoyed looking at all of the animals and petting some of them.  She especially liked the cats and the chicks.  We happened to run into some friends from church that volunteer there.  So we had a helper to show Rebecca the animals and let her get close to/pet them.  We all had a great time.  Maybe we'll do it again next year.

We're looking forward to celebrating Christmas as a family today!  We start the day with Kindermusik.  Then we get presents and a feast for dinner.  And best of all we get to celebrate the birth of our Savior and King.  What a great day :)

20 Months Old

Rebecca is 20 months old today!  We're quicly approaching the 2 year mark.  That's just crazy.  We're excited to be celebrating Rebecca's 2nd Christmas next week.  Rebecca is much more into everything this year.  She's definitely fascinated with the tree, the lights and the ornaments.  Only a few ornaments on the bottom half of the tree this year :P  Rebecca picked out her own ornament...a mini replica of a Fisher Price school bus.  She calls it a "coo bus."  We've been having fun doing all sorts of Christmas goody baking.  Today we made cherry bars..."mmm, che-wy."  We're excited to open presents.  Hopefully Rebecca will really get into unwrapping the gifts this year.  Rebecca loves Christmas music.  After about a week of listening to a CD full of new songs (new to her) she already had half of them memorized.  She'll randomly start singing them, when the music isn't even on.  She knows the words.  And she enjoys opening the door on the Advent calendar every day...there are m&ms inside :)  Rebecca likes to look at our nativity set.  She talks about "baby Jesus in the stable," "Joseph," "manger," "angels."

We're definitely into full blown toddlerhood.  The time outs have started.  Potty training is slowly starting.  Rebecca is getting better and better at feeding herself.  And she's really showing her independance.  But she is still very snuggly and loves to cuddle.  She says "I wove you" and gives kisses all the time.  She takes great care of her dolls/babies and is such a sweetheart.

These days Rebecca is into climbing...on everything.  She's finally tall enough :P  Her recent discovery is that she can get into the dining room chairs and reach everything on the table.  No more setting the table for dinner the night before :P  Rebecca has also figured out how to climb onto the piano bench.  We'll be in another room and all of a sudden hear a little concert going on :)

Rebecca continues to do very well with her verbal skills.  She talks in full sentences and can communicate with us quite clearly (most of the time) what she wants.  And as an added bonus Mary is becoming quite fluent in toddler speak...she can understand almost any toddler...even if their own parents can't!  Not sure if this is a skill that will come in handy for any other job.  But for now it's working well.

We work on letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. every day.  Rebecca knows quite a few of her letters by sight.  She's even starting to "read."  We have alphabet stickers and put some on her paper the other day..."B I G."  She said what each letter was and then said "big."  She can now count up to 14 and even recognize some of her numbers.  She knows all of the basic shapes and most colors (aside from the odd ones, like turquoise or burgundy:).

Rebecca still LOVES Kindermusik ("our time").  She wishes we could go every day.  We only have 1 regular class left for this semester.  And then a class the first week in January that is open to all family members and will have a social time.  We have already signed up for next semester.  It begins at the end of January.  We can't wait for our new CDs, books and instruments.  Rebecca will probably have the music memorized in a week.

We are getting ready for all of our Christmas celebrations over the next 2 weeks and looking forward to spending time with family and celebrating the birth of our Saviour.  We feel so blessed to have our own little miracle child with us on Christmas.  And we feel so blessed to know the true miracle child that was born on Christmas Day.

Christmas Fun

Making, decorating and eating Christmas cookies

Decorating the Christmas tree

Being silly and cute at bedtime

Gymnastics

Last night we went to a local gymnastics place (For The Kidz Gymnastics).  They have open gym on Friday and Saturday evenings.  Rebecca is a little on the young side for most of the stuff there.  And it took her a bit to warm up.  But she still had a lot of fun.  She bounced on the trampolines, did somersaults, climbed up and went down the slide, walked on tha balance beam, crawled in the foam block pit and went through the big bounce house (w/ mommy).  All 3 of us had a lot of fun.  Maybe when Rebecca is a little older we'll sign her up for a gymnastics class.

Fun With Family

While we were in Grand Blanc over the weekend we got to see all of the Hollebooms.  We stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Holleboom.  Rebecca loved playing with all of Grandma's toys.  And she did not want to let Grandpa out of her sight.  If he wasn't in the room she had to go find him.  The first thing she did when she got up on Sunday was to walk around saying "Grandpa, Grandpa."  She was ready to play!  On Sunday everyone went to church and out for lunch together.  It was so much fun to see everyone.  All of the kids had a blast together.  Rebecca thought it was fun to share (steal) Anna's french fries.  This was her first taste of curly fries :)  Anna and Rebecca finally got to wear their matching dresses that Grandma made :)  We look forward to seeing everyone again in few weeks for Jonah's baptism.