2007-03-18 Michelle's Update

March 18, 2007

Hi Everyone,

It is another beautiful day here. It's been great. It makes me excited for the summer. We have spent our days jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, going for walks, playing at the park, drawing with our sidewalk chalk, playing red light green light, and just sitting outside on the porch. SO NICE!!! It is supposed to cool off this week again. We all got sunburned yesterday. Oops. I forget how easy it is to get sunburned here. The sun feels good though.

We are getting excited to come to Utah on Friday. The girls talk about our LONG drive to Utah often. They have a nice list of snacks they want me to pack in the car. And they want their pillows and blankets too and will demonstrate for me how they will fall asleep in the car. I doubt that they will though. Justin I am hoping will. He has weaned himself to one nap a day. It's about 3 hours long, which is wonderful. He is also on whole milk now and faces forward in the car. He's a big boy, that's for sure.

Justin turns 1 on Wednesday. He has been full-time walking now for about 2 weeks. He refuses to crawl. He hardly ever falls down anymore except when he tries to run. He is getting better at running. It makes me laugh to watch him do it. His right arm moves in circles while he does it and half the time he ends up face planting. He stand right back up and keeps on walking. He is no longer allowed in the baby room at the YMCA now that he is a walker. Kind of sad. I bought him his first pair of tevas, which are very funny on him. For the first few hours he had them on he refused to walk, but he refused to crawl too so he just stood there. Kind of paralyzed and not sure what to do. So he would squat down. Then stand back up. Pretty funny. He is walking in them fine now though, but much slower. When I take the shoes off he runs away from me as fast as he can laughing. He claps his hands together and says "yea!" over and over. He also says pancake (my favorite), car, mom, dad, bottle, and more. Hans still asserts that gong means hungry. He eats three pancakes and a sausage link for breakfast. Then most of a yogurt and half a pbj sandwhich for lunch. A snack. And then more dinner then either of the girls. He enjoys his mealtimes. We had a party for him for his birthday last night and he LOVED the cake and then was wired. He had two whole peices. He ate every last crumb. He has started pulling the tops of his bottles off and dumping the milk everywhere. This is why I had to take the seats out of the van and steam clean the carpets and wipe all the seats and windows down. Thankfully we have leather seats.

The girls are well. Katelyn calls Justin Bustin boon. Not sure why. It's funny though. This morning while I was getting ready for Church I overheard the girls playing that their babies were spirits in heaven coming to Earth. So cute. And Ashley was singing "I lived in Heaven" in her opera voice. Katelyn has completely mastered the two-wheel bike. It's crazy to watch her ride around on that so fast and she is so little. I have to really speed walk to keep up with her. Ashley, on the other hand, prefers to walk. She is still a little scared of her bike, although she rides it just great. They have had fun with the nicer weather and it's wearing them out. They are really tired at night. I love that they can get so much exercise.

Hans has been busy meeting with dental consultants. He also finished our TV stand, which looks great. It looks better then the picture I gave him to copy. He's wishing he didn't do such a good job because now I want him to make me end tables and a coffee table. He is planning on doing the radon while I am in Utah and then onto crown moulding. I have a never-ending list of projects for him, which is why he's been meeting with dental consultants. He says he needs someone to help him do everything since he doesn't have the time.

Well, hope all is well with all of you! We're excited to see you this weekend,

Michelle