Reasonable Resilience

It's crazy that I have two children, it's crazier that my youngest is now 1 year old. Happy birthday big boy

Noah Edward Jacob Steinke say hello to your little friend, Benjamin Rush Hogan.

What a great day. What a pile of laundry? I told Eric that it is our lifes mission to get all of the clothing clean. Well, what I hadn't expected was the amount of folding involved in 4 seperate people's closets. Bedding after being sick. Towels and towels and towels (mostly those little baby washcloths that I'm starting to think can go in the drawer unfolded) What a treat having a laundro-mat downstairs. I think it's bad until I hear Kate Gosslin has two washers and dryers and that she has TEN seperate people's clothing to fold. I guess I'll get back to folding.

okay, just so you know, I've been wanting to put some new pictures up, but our computer is out of memory and it takes a really long time to get them uploaded. So here's a little note. We are back from Florida and I hate Michigan right now. Although I have always enjoyed having 4 seasons, I now wish that winter was the shortest instead of the longest, seriously 5 MORE inches of snow? Noah's finally getting his two front teeth and they are not being nice about it. Let's just say that we sleep attatched to each other or else he's screaming his head off. I'm seriously considering taking the full bed out of the room so that I can't just lay down with him anymore. I need him to sleep through the night like, yesterday. Well, for now at least he isn't throwing up anymore. Grace is still Grace and is starting to be a bigger ham than she ever has been. She's playing make believe and using her imagination a lot. I don't love that she watches TV all the time...

The kids and I took a trip to Ann Arbor while Eric was out of town one week-end. Ann Arbor got so much snow we were stuck inside for most of the day. When Uncle Scott came home we managed to make it to a playscape for some tumble fun. Aunt Kate and I got in on the fun while Uncle Scott watched the game on a big screen with Noah. Curious little Noah pulled a lamp off the table and burned his head, but as you can see the scab has fallen off and we are on our way to healthy skin again. I think bath time may be Noah's favorite activity. He stands at the edge of the tub and yells, laughs and pleeds with his eyes to get in. Grace doesn't always love sharing, but he holds his own and pulls her hair if she doesn't make room. We can't wait for the snow to go and we plan on making a trip to Florida next month to see Aunt Karen and Uncle Ryan, and also to rid ourselves of heavy coats and boots for at least a few days. I'm sure I'll have more pictures for you then, so...

So, I'm a "real" tree kind of a person and I think Eric is too. My family used to tredge up north in the early parts of December and cut down our own tree for Christmas and I'll never forget it. I want it to be a traditoin for my kids as well. We went last year with Grace and the year before when she was really little and have always ended up with a tree, cute or not. Last year it was a long two days of searching and finally we found a tree place that had tons of "good" trees, so we went there first this year. Eric, Kara, Grace, Noah and even Lucy went for a walk in the woods for "the" tree for 2008. We found it rather quickly which was nice, and I'm starting to not care so much what it looks like, just that we ALL go get it. It came home atop the new minivan and made it in one piece. Eric set it up outside and dragged it into it's "place" in the house shortly after. Lights (white this year) were hung and all the pretty ornaments...