Marvelous Miriam: 23 months?!

She's almost TWO?! When did that happen?

We are just loving this girl to pieces. Right now, she does EVERYTHING that big sister does. Everything. If sister jumps off the couch and runs to the bathroom, Miriam is right behind her. If Ashleigh touches the wall, you'd better believe Miriam has to touch that same wall, too. Miriam is Ashleigh's little shadow! So far, this isn't causing too many issues (thank goodness!)

She is such a loving girl. She loves to give hugs and kisses. She is seriously the most precious thing ever. (No bias. Not one bit!)

She loves playing Hide and Seek. She is GOOD. She scared me sometimes when I can't find her! She doesn't giggle or anything! When it is her time to "count", she covers her eyes and says, "One, twoooo...." and then she uncovers her eyes and puts her finger to her chin and says, "Hmmmmm..." and then she goes to look for the hider.

She likes to name everyone right now. She will look around the house and name "Momma. Daddy. TeeTee. Meow. Dah."

Yes, she calls Ashleigh "TeeTee"  and it is the sweetest thing I have ever heard! That is just her way of saying "sister." Melts my heart! "Meow" is what she calls Hobbes the cat (for obvious reasons). "Dah" is what she calls Arden the dog.

She goes down slides all by herself now. She calls them "wees." She has figured out she can go down a slide on her belly if she gets scared, but she can be quite fearless! (But I do love it when she shows some fear because she comes running to me with her arms outstretched, wanting a hug!)

We have officially given up on a high chair. We've always used the small high chair seat that you just strap into your regular chair. We finally unhooked it and took it downstairs. Miriam has been able to escape from those high chair straps for months now, no matter how tight she is strapped in. She in an escape artist! Now we are just trying to keep her off the table while we're eating (because, you know, everyone's else food looks so much tastier than hers!)

She is slowly starting to say more words and use more language that we can actually understand. One day we'll understand you, kiddo! Her new favorite words are "Nannna" (Anna from Frozen) and booboo. She is always convinced that she needs a bandaid because she has a booboo.

She is wearing size 4 diapers and size 18 month and 24 month clothing.
Her favorite foods right now are CHEESE, yogurt, avocado, spaghetti, corn on the cob.

For breakfast, she regularly requests "lellow" (cereal) or a "fuffle" (waffle).

Moving

Moving day was quite, um, interesting, to say the least! We were very fortunate to have Matt's dad fly up and help us through this crazy time. Our movers were supposed to arrive between 8am-11am. Of course that means they didn't arrive until around 1:00. Of course. Anyway, when they arrived, they walked right up to our doorstep smoking their cigarettes. I put on my "mother bear" attitude, and told them quite frankly that I did NOT appreciate them smoking at my house, especially with my kids right there beside me, and I firmly told them to get away from our house until they were done. So I didn't start off on the best foot with them, but they quickly earned my respect. They individually came up to me after they started packing and apologized for their smoking. They were exceptionally hard workers. And they worked hard for almost 7 hours! Whew!

While they were wrapping and disassembling all the bedroom furniture upstairs, our cat was going crazy. I was so afraid he was going to slip out the front door when it was open, so I decided we needed to put him somewhere safe. So I put him in the upstairs bathroom storage area. We put plenty of food and water and would check on him occasionally. Matt went upstairs at one point and couldn't find him. What? We went back upstairs and noticed that there was a spot behind the tub that had never been properly sealed, and to the best of our knowledge, our cat was now somewhere LITERALLY inside the house. As in, walking between rooms and floors on the insulation. Oh my gosh, we were so upset. Matt went to Meijer and bought pretty much every cat toy and treat possible, plus lots of catnip and a laser pointer. We kept taking turns sticking our head into the hole and calling for him. Nothing. Nada. At this point, we have no idea if he'll resurface, which means we wouldn't be able to leave for SC, or if he was even alive! Finally, after about 3 hours, we heard a faint "meow." At least we knew he was alive!! Two hours or so later, I finally caught a glimpse of him. It took some coaxing, but we finally got him out of the insulation! Oh we were so relieved! By this point, our movers were finishing up, so we got to work doing the last minute clean up portion. We were so thankful for awesome friends who let us borrow cleaning supplies and vacuums! We finished around 8pm. We were so pumped and ready to go that we just decided to get in the car and start driving! We ended up driving all night and arrived in Lexington around 10am. We were tired but SO glad to be back in the south!

We don't have many pictures from moving day (imagine that?), but these two pics of Miriam from our drive down just make me laugh. This one was at McDonalds for breakfast at around 7am. Poor girl just could not stay awake. She fell asleep leaning over like that, and slept like that until we left!

This was a few hours later when she decided she was hungry and did want to eat those yummy pancakes (or she just wanted to play with them! I don't care... anything goes on 12 hour car trips!)

We will miss Michigan in many ways. Our church family was wonderful and did a great job suppoWe dontrting us! We are so thankful for them and will miss their friendships! We will miss living on a working farm. It sure was neat to watch the corn grow! We will miss our friends that we made during our (almost) 4 years up there. We will always have fond memories of our time in Mason! (But we definitely won't miss those negative temperatures during winter. Not.One.Bit!) And thanks to our amazing, super, awesome friends, we have a basket full of Michigan treasures to remind us of our time spent here!

So long, Michigan!!

Marvelous Miriam- 2 years old!

Our sweetest Miriam Grace just turned 2! Even though we were in the midst of packing up our whole house, we still spent time celebrating our sweet girl.

She is starting to copy our words and phrases and say things in the cutest ways. She never really pronounces the first letters of words, so her pronunciations crack us up.

All animals are referred to as the sounds they make.

She calls a cow a "moo", a monkey is a "haha", and a cat is a "meowie."

She has just started to enjoy coloring in her coloring books.

She is speaking in more sentences. Her vocabulary has quadrupled lately, it seems.

All she wants to do is play with her sister ("teetee", if you will). That girl is her hero.

But if her sister isn't around, she is perfectly content to  play independently. She loves playing with her sister's princesses and My Little Ponies.

She is starting to wear more size 24 month clothing and is still wearing size 4 diapers.

Once we moved down south we had a lovely (belated) birthday party with all the grandparents and great-grandparents in attendance. It was so wonderful to have everyone together in the same room!

However, on her actual birthday, we got together with our dear friends in MI and had a cookout. We also attended the Memorial Day parade the day before together.

Miriam, you are the most loving little girl. You love to give hugs. You can be shy and like to stand beside us if you aren't feeling confident. You have the brightest eyes that just sparkle and shine. You are a blessing, for sure! We love you!

Myrtle Beach Mini-Vacation

While the guys gathered for their big fantasy football draft, the kids and I stayed in Myrtle Beach with Dana and her two kiddos. (Her husband was at the football draft, too). We had a wonderful time relaxing, playing on the playgrounds, swimming at the pool, going to the beach, and walking around Barefoot Landing.

The kids were restless, so we took them to the playground...except the weather didn't want to cooperate! It rained the whole time we were there! But the kids LOVED it! Of course their favorite part was jumping into the mud puddles.

We spent one morning at the pool. Definitely a hit, even though the water was a bit cool.

They had a wonderful time seeing the tigers (and babies!) at Barefoot Landing.

We even got to see the alligator that lives at Barefoot!

On our last morning in Myrtle Beach, we took a trip over to the beach with the daddies, too (who had successfully completed their football draft by this point). 

Thank you, dear friends, for a fun weekend away!

Back to School Carnival

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer hosted a Back to School Carnival this past weekend for all the kids heading to school. It was a big hit! The kids had a great time, and I know most of the parents enjoyed themselves, too!

The biggest hit of the evening was the balloon man. He could make anything! The girls were amazed.

Elsa!

There were also lots of games, prizes, and a fun sing-along. What a fun evening!!