this face

What's not to love about this face?
Big brown eyes. Check.
Mile long eyelashes. Check.
Chubby cheeks. Check.
Full, kissable lips. Check.
Double chin. Check.
Chocolate on nose. Check.
Yep, 100% lovable.

play time

Just a couple of things to keep Dane occupied during the day. 1.Playing on mom and dad's bed.
2. Playing in the clothes hamper and wearing his favorite 'jacket'. Whenever he sees his chinese outfit he always wants to put it on.

3. Making daddy do the work, while Dane hangs on for the ride.

happy easter

We had a great Easter this year. The weather was nice, egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's with the cousins and of course - a picture with the Easter bunny. Dane didn't really enjoy the experience - and I don't blame him. That was the scariest looking bunny I've ever seen!

Grandma - can I please have some candy now?

The goodies...

expanding vocab

In the last month it feels like Dane is learning at least one new word a day. I know I won't be able to remember them all right now but as I do, i'll keep adding to the list. I'm doing this mainly for me - so when we have our next kid and he/she is starting to talk, I can remember some of the words Dane said earlier in his language development.

pancakes
faffle- waffle
walk
outside
peach
apple
nack - fruit snacks
nummies - sugary treats
fish - either gold fish or real fish (and shows the sign for it)
cereal (and signs it)
Barlow
elmo
koda - Dakota
Weny - wendy
Cheyanne
TJ
Jake
JD
Kellie
sammy
doggy
cow
duck
lion
mickey
pocket
closed
mashamellow-marshmellow
milk
juice
applesauce
cheese
nuggets - chicken nuggets
pizza
pretty - mom's jewelry
wuvu - i love you
elp-u - help me (he says help you because I would ask him "do you want mommy to help you?" - and he signs help
slide
swing
baa - sheep

weather report

I love snow... except for today! It seems like every year people always say that "this is the worst year ever." So i'm documenting how crappy the weather really has been so next year when I say "this is the worst i've seen in years", I can look back and remember how truly bad 2009 was, and if i'm lucky, i may relive some of these angry feelings all over again!

From about March 16-24 the weather was beautiful mid-60s to 70 degrees. I was in shorts and t-shirts. Then we left for California the 26th and it was snowing that morning and the cold has stayed since. When we got back from Cali it was about 35-40 for a few days. Frigid. It warmed up to high 40s for about a week. Then it was raining and icky. On Easter - April 12, the weather was nice (about 60) but then the cold and rain started and again. And yesterday - the 15th it snowed heavy for most of the morning and early afternoon. It warmed up enough in the afternoon to melt it.

Then at 4am my blasted smoke alarm started beeping. The power had gone out and everytime it surged for the next 3 hours, it would beep. I couldn't get ready because I had no power, then I went to leave and saw that we had over 9 INCHES of snow in the driveway! Where did that come from??? Lame. So out comes the snow shovel, and here comes sleep deprived, ticked off Mieka to work... Watch out!

teach the little children

It is never too young to teach your kids. The other day I was walking out of our room and Dane says something and made kissing noises. He kisses lots of things so I wasn't really paying attention. As we walked into the family room he does it again but louder. I look over and he's looking at the picture of Jesus, smiling and saying "Esus, Esus." Followed by his sweet little kisses. Yep, my kid loves Jesus. I may not do a lot of things right, but i know teaching him about God and Jesus are some of the best foundations I can give him to survive in the world.

And Dane, Jesus loves you back!