A good laugh...

Jon and I had a good laugh yesterday...

Marie has started the phase where she repeats things that we say. She has also started to make connections between related concepts. Yesterday at lunch, Jon offered to help her eat part of her grilled cheese sandwich, which she had only been nibbling. Here's the basic exchange...

Jon: Marie, your sandwich is cold now. It was much better when it was warm… You missed the boat.
Marie: Missed the boat.
Peg: Yep, you missed the boat.
Marie: (facial expression showing the wheels churning inside her mind)
Missed the ark. Noah's ark.
Peg: That’s right Marie, you don’t want to miss the ark.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was somewhat quieter than usual, given that we didn't drive anywhere. We stayed close to home and let family come to us! On Thanksgiving Day, Mark and Sarah came to hang out and partake in our Thanksgiving meal. Turkey and pumpkin pie was on the menu, but we didn't go to the trouble of making a whole bird.

We did still have a little bit of snow on the ground, just enough for Marie to take a few trips down our hill in her sled. (See the video below from a few days earlier.) So, at least she and Jon got the chance to work off some of those holiday calories. We're looking forward to many more opportunities for sledding this winter!

On Friday, we were fortunate to have ALL the Shibata's here. It is not too often that we are able to get everyone in the same place at once. It was quite the long day for the travelers, but we were so happy to see everybody. We had a small engagement "party" for Joel and Jenn and spent most of the afternoon chasing after the 1- and 2-year-olds. We did get to watch a little football, though. (Go Pitt!)

We're looking forward to having a couple more days "off" before heading back to work next week. 16 days (max) until Baby! We'll keep everyone posted!

Happy Advent!

Oh, the weather outside is...

...a bit cold for November, if you ask me.

Marie has definitely gotten her first taste of snow this "winter." We've had flurries off and on for at least the last week, but it really started sticking here on Sunday. When we got home from church Sunday morning, she enjoyed watching it come down and accumulate on our deck.

By Monday morning, we were covered, even though areas not too far from us didn't seem to have hardly any accumulation.

Marie and I decided to go outside and brave the temperature. Marie turned out to be more brave. It actually snowed a little more while we were out there, but the biting wind didn't seem to phase her a bit. She also wasn't bothered by the cold, wet feet she had when I had to drag her inside. I didn't expect that Marie would need boots already! Thankfully, she had a snow suit.

Marie enjoyed making her first snow angel of the season and new tracks in the fresh snow. And, who said that swinging and going down the slide were summer activities? That was her favorite part.

The snow has started to melt, but Marie reminded me again today that she needs boots....now!

On the baby front, we are plugging along. At last week's visit, the baby measured at about 5.3 lbs....right on track. Everything else is going as expected, so we're still looking at inducing on Dec 15th.

It's about time...

I know that's what you're all thinking. I'd be thinking it too, if I were you. Yes, I'm finally getting around to posting a note about our recent trip around the Midwest.

Marie did remarkably well during all of the driving. She is getting to be quite the little traveler. We probably had to stop more times for Mom (potty breaks!) than for Marie.

After arriving at Grandma and Grandpa's house (Marie had been talking about it all week), one of the first things on the agenda was for Grandpa to see just how big Marie was getting. The verdict was...she's growing. Marie actually gets a kick out of this on a regular basis and knows just what to do when anyone gets out the "tape." Another order of business was to try out the toddler swing out back. She loved it! In fact, it was sometimes hard to pry her away from it!

We had many wonderful visitors on Saturday. Thanks to everyone that took time out of your busy schedules to stop by. We very much enjoyed catching up with everyone, even if it was for just a short while. Benjamin was such a good sport about sitting in the rocker with Marie! I think most people got hugs from Marie when leaving...she's usually pretty good at that.

Sunday consisted of getting back into the car to go to St. Louis. On the way over, we explained to Marie that we were going to see "Great-Grandpa." Since "job" usually comes after "great," Marie started calling Grandpa Boedeker "Great Job Paw Paw." She got it figured out before the day was over though. She was quick to make new friends and even got to have a book read to her by "Great Paw Paw." We were quite impressed the next day when without any prompting whatsoever, she remembered that she had seen "Mary" at Great-Grandpa's house.

We took a little different route during the drive back to Michigan on Tuesday so that we could stop in Valparaiso, IN to visit with Jon's grandparents. We thought that it might be confusing to Marie to see another Great-Grandpa, but she caught on very quickly. We had a very nice visit; Marie warmed up to "Great Paw Paw" and "Great Maw Maw" right away. She of course wanted to have another book read to her. And, any time Great Grandpa would leave the room, she would follow after him and to see where he was going. You'd never know she was that worried about him from the skeptical look she was giving him at dinner!

We arrived home safely late on Tuesday night. It was a tiring, fun-filled and definitely worthwhile trip. We were so glad to see everyone that we did, especially since we won't be driving down for the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays. We hope everyone had a good time at the Meinhart "Thanksgiving." So sorry to have missed it! We heard there was a great crowd and not nearly enough food. :) Just kidding....about the food.

Thanks to Peg's parents for putting up with us and always making us feel at home. Thanks also to Uncle Matt for making the trip down from Peoria to visit.

On another note, we owe Jon's parents a million thanks for coming to up to Michigan this past weekend so that Jon and I could go to a married couple's retreat at our parish. It was a great opportunity for us to get away (somewhat) and spend some quality time together, something that will be increasingly harder to accomplish in the next few weeks!

Love to all and we'll keep you posted on any developments on the baby front!