On to 2012...

 It wasn't 10 days after we got back to Michigan that Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart came up for a visit.  No, it wasn't that they couldn't stand to be away from us that long.  I had known for a couple of months that I would need to go to Atlanta for 2-3 days for work.  So, we called up the reserves!  The great thing about that was that we got to celebrate Grandma Meinhart's birthday with her.  Marie was CERTAIN that Grandma would love to have apple crisp for her birthday dessert.  It turned out pretty well, but we'll know next time to let it cool a little bit more before putting in the candles…it doesn't take long for those to melt!

So I think we've pretty much gotten back into a routine around here.  I guess we should by now since it is almost February.  Marie is thriving at school.  I just went to a parent teacher conference last week and the teacher said Marie is doing very well with all of her studies and is particularly impressed with her reading.  Her only real complaint is that Marie can be a bit of a slow poke when it comes to transitioning from one thing to the next.  This was not at all surprising to us since she is very much the same way at home. 

Somewhere in all that December traveling, Joey was potty trained.  He had been doing excellent with #2, but was always to distracted or busy to worry about #1.  To be honest, we were not stressing out about it too much and would venture to say that we really hadn't committed to getting him trained.  But, all of a sudden during the early December drive down to Illinois, he was dry…the whole time!  Sure we've had some accidents here and there, but for the must part, he is doing great.  He is started to recognize numbers and letters.  A few of the letters he is able to associate with sounds and can do some basic addition and subtraction.  He still skips "15" when he counts to 20, but we'll keep working on that.

Stevie is quite the card and still gets into everything.  He frequently makes a series of faces at us as if he is giving some sort of treatise.  He is really very animated.  The stairs seem to be a a magnet for him with the sole reason to just climb up and down.  Yep, he really likes climbing down them but is not quite good enough yet not to worry his mother.  And his latest trick just the last day or so has been WALKING.  He has been able to take quite a few steps in a row and has covered 6'-8' on his own.  He thinks he is pretty hot stuff.  He is almost 11 months old, which means he is 3 months ahead of when Marie and Joey walked.

Even with the mild winter, we have been able to get out to the sledding hill a few times.  Marie and Joey still really enjoy it and since the snow has not been that deep, they have both been able to climb back up on their own.  Well, Joey likes to hold our hand, but at least we're not towing him up.  We've also taken Stevie a couple of times, but he doesn't like it.  We can't quite figure that out since he is a bit of a daredevil everywhere else.  We're guessing he'll grow into it.

So, I think that brings us up to date.  I have the best intentions of not letting things go this long before I post again, but quite frankly I'm not making any promises.  Thanks for hanging on with us this long and hope to see you again soon in the blog-o-sphere.