We were so excited to get outside and play after the snow melted. Halle has discovered the parks this year. It has been so FUN! The only thing is ,is she wants to go ALL the time! All she talks about is "going weeeeee," "slide," and "swing." Don't ever mention it unless you are actually planning on going or you have one upset little girl. We have been trying every park around town. And we have found that Halle is fearless. She will RUN up the stairs and the jungle gym and always wants to go to the highest slide. And she wants to do this all by herself. She does really well. She sits and scoots to the slide...whew...thank goodness. I still can't breath whenever she is up there. We of course love to go with our friends Denver and Ashley too. Halle also loves the wagon rides.
Denver is so excited!! Love this face! Halle could really swing for an hour and just talk and talk and talk away. Daddy has fun too! Here's a short video of Halle RUNNING to the top slide as Dad tries to keep up with her.
I realize that it is now June but I never got to post on Easter. I don't want to pass these sweet moments up to share with you. I will never forget this past Easter Sunday morning. We were doing a painting during the Sunday morning service. I had the paint buckets filled in the room to the side of the stage. Halle of course was right on my heels the whole time we were getting everything ready. I ran into the room with the paint for a split second and then turned and saw almost as if in slow motion Halle taking a fall right into the black paint...new Easter dress and all. It scared her sooo bad, poor thing! But luckily it was just her arm. So the sleeve of her sweater was the only thing ruined. Unfortunately I was so frustrated at the moment that I didn't snap a picture of this memorable moment. But it will always be remembered.
Our church puts on a community Easter egg hunt each year. It is always a huge hit. This year we had over 500 people come through the doors. It went so great. We had over 20,000 eggs stuffed with candy and door prizes. We gave away 6 bikes and TONS of TOYS. Halle of course loved picking up the Easter eggs once she realized there was candy in each one. Daddy of course jumped in and helped as well. This was Halle's first year dying Easter eggs. I think the stickers were her favorite part. Jesus is good!
We are so happy swimming season is coming. Halle really liked and enjoyed being in the water last year. Just recently we have introduced her to the indoor pool again after months of not having her in the water. We want to try and get her ready for The Falls when it opens in June. The Falls is this really nice water park facility they have here in Cedar Falls. It has a LARGE wonderful kids area.
Halle has been talking and understanding more and more everyday. It is truly amazing to see her personality unfold all the more. She is precious. So, with her understanding more we also have to be careful what we say. She doesn't quite understand the words "tomorrow" or "later." So if we know we are taking her to the park or taking her swimming later we refrain from saying so earlier than that very moment of leaving and actually going. If we do not wait, Halle runs and gets her shoes and says "play," "weeeee," "slide," "swing," "swim," or "Waweee" (aka:water) FOREVER!!!!!! And gets pretty angry when it doesn't happen. When we are heading to the pool she of course is sooooooo excited! She talks about it the whole way there. "Mommy, mommy, mommy?" (me) "Yes Halle?" "Wawee, Wawee and Daddy in Wawee.....jibberresh that we don't quite understand....swim, Daddy, swim in the wawee!" (me) "Yes Halle Water, we're going to swim in the water" Halle then always says, "Kay, Kay" and then repeats everything. Really cute but also REALLY repetitive! Although I have to say her excitement is pretty contagious and puts BIG smiles on our faces.
Dan has been working with Halle on her holding her breath under water. She has recently learned how to and it has truly amazed us. She will actually hold her breath long enough to reach down and grab a toy at the bottom of the pool. So we want to share these special videos with you. Dan is an amazing teacher with Halle. He really knows "HOW" to teach her things well. I have alot of learning to do from him. Halle is also a very quick learner and a determined little girl. Here they are. Please enjoy.
I am blessed with an amazing husband. There is really no better, He is the best! And we have been blessed with the most precious little girl, Halle! It's hard to imagine loving another one like I love these. A women's heart grows and stretches with her belly. I keep learning a deeper and deeper love. Thank you Jesus for the joys you have entrusted and given to me. You are the giver of the best gifts.
Dan and Halle came home yesterday with these beautiful flowers. Halle looked so excited to give them to me, sooo sweet! She kept stressing over and over to me that they needed water.
Then Dan slaved for over an hour in the kitchen on this awesome meal. It was sooooooo good! Yummy! You two are the best!! Thank you for such a memorable day! I love you!
I apologize for not posting in a very long time. Having a toddler run and around and being in my third trimester has me pretty tired lately. I want to post as much as i can before the baby gets here. So here goes a try to do that.
Back in March, we went to South Georgia for Spring Break to visit all my family. We had so much fun. It had been a whole year since we had seen our family. They were definitely ready to see Halle. And Halle ate it up. She LOVED all the attention she got for the week and the presents too.
There were so many pictures taken that I wanted to share so I've put them all in different slideshows. The following one is of the time that we got to spend at my Dad's house. Halle had a blast with "Papa", "Manda", and "Katie!" Halle spent LATE LATE nights up with Papa playing chase, legos, or with her new baby. Aunt Katie showed her video after video of herself (Halle) and let her play with her phone as much as she wanted. She was in the spotlight of Grandma Amanda's camera the whole time. Halle got whatever she wanted with Manda and Papa. She had tons of chocolate, candy, and cookies to dig into at their house. We always feel so welcome and have an amazing time at Daddy's. Halle found a new buddy. Her and Aunt Katie were attached at the hip.
Our time spent at Grandma and Jon's house was so much fun too. We were able to enjoy some great food cooked by Mom and Jon. Halle loved the "farm." She was thrilled by all the animals she got to play with and meet. She never wanted to go to sleep here either. We were so surprised and blessed to have my Uncle Tommy and cousin Angela with her two kids come and visit from Jacksonville as well. Halle got to meet her cousin Maria and they bonded immediately. Halle also got to hang out with Papa and Meme. In some of the pics you'll see Halle playing blocks with Papa. I was amazed at how comfortable Halle was around everyone. She went to almost anyone as long as we were in sight of course. She was very social the whole trip. There is also a picture of two drawings that Jon and Mom surprised us with. This lady that goes to school with mom did them for her. They are amazing and we're completely blown away when we saw them!!! We love them. Our time with them was blessed. Had so much fun!
We were able to take a day to Tybee beach with Daddy, Amanda, and Katie. Halle was everywhere. She ran right into the water, no fear at all. She just kept running and running and running! We got to feed the birds, look for seashells and soak up the sweet sweet smell of the ocean. Oh how I miss the beach...aagghh! Enjoy these beautiful pictures taken by Amanda.
That evening we went to Dan and I's favorite place to eat in Savannah, The Crab Shack. This was the place of our first date. I LOVE the food here. I have missed good seafood. This is definitely the place to go to get it. Halle got to see all the cats, birds, and alligators that live there. She ate 4 pieces of their corn on the cob. Some of our close friends from Atlanta just so happened to be vacationing there at Tybee. We were so happy to get to hook up with them to visit and see there new precious little boy Caden. We sure do miss them alot. A visit to The Crab Shcak will definitely become a family tradition of ours.
Daddy took us to the St. Patty's Day parade. This is a very unique celebration to Savannah. The parade is the third largest St. Patty's parade in the U.S. It turned out being pretty chilly that day but alot of fun! Halle really enjoyed the parade. I really enjoyed the sweet tea. There was this cafe across form where we sat that sold the best sweet tea I have ever had...yummmm! It was alot of fun. I'm so glad we got to go. Savannah truly has it's own culture and city life. I had missed it. Enjoy the pics! That evening Dan was asked to speak at our home church RCOG in my old youth group 24/7. Les and Tressa (my old youth pastors) are HUGE heros of mine. We were honored and blessed to take the opportunity. Dan did a great job. So proud of him.
We really enjoyed our time in South Georgia. We were overwhlemed to get off the plane and see 15 people waiting to greet us and give us lots of hugs! It went way too fast. We were so thankful to beable to go. Thank you fam, we love you and Halle misses all of you alot! She always goes through all the names and animals she met there and just talks and talks about it. She wants to see the pictures over and over again. Thank you, it was such a blessing to spend the week with you. We can't wait to do it again!
Halle and I woke Daddy up EARLY Sunday morning with heart shaped pancakes, a little gift, his favorite cookies, and this Card. Dan had to speak that morning on one of the hardest stories in the Bible. We wanted to encourage him and tell him we sure did love him and he was our valentine. Look closely and Halle did make her remarks as well in crayons.
We took some cute cute photos with our friends for Valentine's. It was so much fun but also challenging. It is definitely getting harder and harder to get our toddlers to remain still to take a photo. I think we were all sweating after this one.
This is our friend Denver, he is only one month older than Halle. He is so adorable and we LOVE hanging out with him and his mommy and daddy. nelsonfamilynest.blogspot.com She's an angel. Here is our friend Zion. Halle is only a few days older than this handsome guy. He loved smiling at the camera but wow...was he active!!! You had to be super quick to capture it. I'd snap the picture and then he would quickly charge me and tackle me. There was truly a distinction between a girl and a boy 18 month old that day. He is a wild man and so much fun!!! We love him and his mommy. She's my porcelain baby doll. Halle has officially been spoiled by everyone who knows her, especially her grandparents! We received a package at the door the other day. Halle saw the brown box as I pulled it through the door and her face immediately lit up as she ran into the living room and proceeded to show me where exactly to place it. She patted her hand on the ground rushing me to put it down so she could open it right away. It was soooo cute! She knows what brown packages are!! Well she got tons of Valentine's gifts from Grandpa and grandma Mock in this little brown box. Thank you guys, she loved all of it soooo much. She would not put that sucker down for two hours. She wears her necklaces everyday and has taken a special liking to that black bear. Her cookie has long since been devoured. It was incredibly sweet to get this for Valentine's Day. Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day to all.
Dan's parents flew us to Orlando Florida for the week of Christmas this year for our Christmas present. It was an incredible week. We stayed in a condo with the back porch opening up to a pond with a constant running fountain. The place was amazing and so comfortable. Unlike we would be able to do at a hotel we sat down at a table to Dan's mom's great cooking all week. We spent the week relaxing, watching movies, eating, sight seeing and just soaking up the nice weather. Dan's parents live in Germany and we are currently of course in snow stricken Iowa. So the 70 degree weather was wonderful, almost indescribable how much we enjoyed the nice weather. We got to spend a couple of days at Disney World. We loved it, especially little Halle! Here are some pics from the week.
Halle found a new bud in Uncle Mike! She loves him! The first day we went to Disney, within minutes of being there, Halle took a BIG fall. We thought oh what a cute picture spot. Although this did end up being a good pic, it was not worth it. Halle lost her balance when trying to touch the frog's nose and fell head first into the concrete. Immediately her head started oozing with tons of blood! Of course this scared Dan and I to death. We were running frantically trying to find help as blood is now all over Dan and Halle and she is screaming. The paramedics came and looked at her very quickly. What we thought was surely a stitches worthy wound ended up being nothing but a couple of "scratches." Deep scratches but still scratches. After all the commotion and frantic mom and dad calmed down Halle was just fine. She enjoyed the rest of the day thoroughly. Thank you Jesus for looking out for little Halle! This is our second day at Disney with Grandma and Grandpa! Having a ball! Halle enjoying her time with Grandpa Friesen! This is Halle riding It's a Small World with Grandma and grandpa. She danced the whole way through, so sweet! Okay she was sooooo cute with Mickey. She wasn't shy at all. She ran right up to him. Halle loves her Minnie. We opened presents on Christmas day at the condo. This was the first time that Halle realized what going on with opening presents. She was thrilled. After our amazing week in Florida, we flew to Kansas City where all of Dan's family lives. We spent a few days there visiting all their family. This is the first I was able to meet them and get to know them. It was such a special time. All of his family were incredibly sweet and enjoyable to be around. Every house we went to had a gift waiting for Halle. And of course she loved everyone of them. This is sweet sweet Aunt Beverly and sweet sweet Grandma Doris who just adored Halle. And I adored them. Too bad we don't live near these two jewels. They are incredible women.
We then came home to Iowa and spent a few days at our place before Dan's parents had to make the trek back to Germany. We really enjoyed our vacation with the Friesen's. Thank you sooooooo much Doug and Karen. The couple weeks spent with you were wonderful. We are so thankful for the awesome Christmas you were able to give us. We love you and will not forget Christmas 09.
Denver is so excited!! Love this face!
Halle could really swing for an hour and just talk and talk and talk away.
Daddy has fun too!
Here's a short video of Halle RUNNING to the top slide as Dad tries to keep up with her.
