Summer Time!

We are loving summer time in Sarasota. Our days have been filled with lots of ...

WATERMELON!

CRAFTS!

BEACH TIME!

SWIMMING!

FOUR!

Can you believe it?

New Born


One


Two


Three


Four

Yes, today is Miranda's fourth birthday. We are so proud of our growing, happy, healthy little lady. Miranda is a delight and a constant source of energy, love, compassion and curiosity in our home. I love watching her with her eye brows furrowed in concentration and then her big eyes light up when she has a new idea or finishes a task. "Hey, hey, I have an idea!" is a phrase we hear a lot, and I love it because you never know what adventure or deep thought is going to follow.

YAY for four!

Miranda with her friends at her birthday part

Baaaaa-utiful Ribbon Dancing

Some of Miranda's friends at school gave her a new princess dress and ribbon wand for her birthday (more on that later). She hasn't stopped ribbon dancing since. We're thinking she should be ready for the 2020 Olympics. Check out these skills.


Isaac has been working on some skills too. He is learning animal sounds. Baaaa!

Safety First!

Children's Museum

We went to the St. Petersburg Children's Museum today and had a great time. Miranda and Isaac drove a fire truck, built towers, harvested vegetables from the garden, gave a dog a bath, grocery shopped and begged to come back. We will absolutely return!

Happy Holidays

ZsaZsa and Grandpa Joe visited us for Christmas, and we had a great time. Then, Nana and Granddaddy came last week to celebrate with us. We had a great time with them and are so glad they could come see us since we couldn't travel to see them. Unfortunately, I barely took any pictures of either visit. Here are a few little highlights of our time.

'Tis The Season for Citrus

Clementine oranges have been a huge hit in our household this citrus season. So much so that I have enough material for a whole blog post dedicated to them. Really? A whole post just about oranges? Yes, it's true! Just keep reading. Here's what my children have been saying about Clementines this year...

Story #1
Isaac's two favorite things in the whole wide world are food and balls. The clementine gloriously unites two favorite things into one extremely favorite thing. He knows where I keep them on our countertop. Throughout the day, I find him pacing back in forth in front of that spot, pointing to them and saying, "Ball! Ball! Ball!..." He then occasionally rubs his hand against his chest, signing "please." This happens 8, 9, 10+ times a day.

Story #2
I've been working with Miranda on synonyms, so I frequently tell her, "Another word for Daddy is Father" or "another word for sofa is couch." You get the point. Yesterday, we were all eating clementines, and she confidently declared, "Mommy, another word for orange is lemon time." Apparently we've been having a lot of lemon time around here lately. Maybe next we should work on pronunciation.

Story #3
After handing Isaac his third (maybe fourth?) clementine at breakfast, I said, "I should tell Santa to fill your stocking with oranges." Miranda immediately got a panicked look in her eyes and a split-second later she yelled, "tell Santa I want chocolate!" It's true...as much as we like oranges, we still like chocolate better.

Catching Up...Isaac (part 2)

And here is what Isaac's been doing the past few months...

Isaac turned one in September! Everyday he is more and more a little boy and less and less a baby. Because of his allergies, instead of a birthday cake, he had a birthday balloon. He didn't know the difference and ran around with a death-grip on his balloon for weeks :)

This fair boy actually likes wearing sun glasses. He's so cool.

Isaac is a climber. It doesn't matter what - a bed, the jungle-gym, the sofa, chairs, whatever.

The beach might just be his favorite place on earth. It's dirty, there are birds, he can scream and shout. If only there wasn't water, it might just be perfect.

I just love this sweet, gummy grin. It is slowly being replaced by a sweet, toothy grin. In the past month, four teeth have come in. If you look close, you can see the beginnings of the two bottom teeth.

Isaac LOVES his daddy, so, so much! Every evening, as soon as Isaac hears Zane at the door, he screams "DADADADADA!" and runs to the door.

Last weekend, we went to a Christmas lights boat parade. Isaac sat, pointed and said "Santa Claus!" at every boat. (No kidding!) He is talking more and more every day. He can say Mama, Dada, book, truck, ball, and Santa Claus.

Isaac's role model is Miranda. Whatever she does, he wants to do. This is the table after Miranda had been making crafts all afternoon. As soon as she left the table, he hopped up and started imitating her.

One of my favorite things Isaac does is just lay down when he's tired. It doesn't matter where. If he's tired, he just stops and rests for a few minutes.

Catching Up...Miranda (Part 1)

Here's a peak at what Miranda's been doing the last few months...

Miranda took her first dance class this fall.

She LOVED it!!!!

Miranda's hair is finally long enough to French braid. She prefers pigtail braids. Actually, she prefers not to have her hair done at all. It's long and curly and beautiful!

Miranda also took swim lessons this fall. She does well in the water and is quickly becoming an independent swimmer!

Miranda is so active. We go to the park every day! She knows all the parks in Sarasota by name and definitely has strong opinions about which is her favorite.

And her favorite by far is the beach! Here she is climbing on the life guard's stand.

Although sometimes she has to improvise and make a park...at home...with her mattress.

When she's not running around outside, you can usually find her at the table making something. She cuts, colors, glues, paints and marks for hours.

Last weekend, we went to a Christmas boat parade. Each boat was decked with Christmas lights, and Miranda stood and clapped the whole parade. It was so cute. She talked about the boats for days after!

That's our silly girl!!!

New, New, New

Yep, it's been a long time since I've updated the blog. We have been just a little bit busy with some new things in our lives...like a new city. Zane has a new job. Isaac has a new skill...walking! (well, actually running) Miranda has a new school, and she loves it! With a new city, we have all been exposed to new germs and had to visit our new doctor's office 12 (yes, 12!) times in the two months since we moved. Overall, we love living in Florida but definitely miss St. Louis. A lot of things have changed, but Miranda and Isaac are still their sweet, fun, adorable selves. Here's a few recent videos. You can see how much they have grown in just a few weeks.

Isaac could climb like this ALL DAY!


Miranda is working on her dance moves.

Thinking About It

Isaac isn't walking yet, but you can see it in his eyes, that he is thinking long and hard about taking those first steps. He will even let go of whatever he is holding onto and stand on his own for a few seconds. My guess is that in about two weeks, I will have to strap on my running shoes (again!).

Sibling Resemblance

Zane took these pictures at lunch on Saturday, and later we realized how similar Miranda's and Isaac's expressions are. I wonder who they learned that look from.

Sooooo Not Ready For This...

That is, I am not ready for Isaac to walk. Isaac, on the other hand, is clearly ready.

Celebrating Three!

Yesterday was Miranda's third birthday. So, let me just get the cliches out now because they are all true...I can't believe it's already been three years! It's gone by so fast! She's getting so big! It seems like just yesterday that I was holding her in my arms for the first time! You blink and your babies are all grown up! Phew, okay, I feel better now.

We celebrated her actual birthday by going to the book store and spending some of her birthday money. But on Saturday, we partied! Ten of Miranda sweet little friends came to help us celebrate her. And when I say friends, I really mean it. Miranda truly enjoys playing with each one of the kids who came, and in her three-year-old way she truly is their friend. We are thankful for those relationships.

The Cake!

The Decorations!

Craft Time!

Eating the craft!

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Miranda, happy birthday to you!

The Snacks!

Miranda, we love you so much and are thankful for three wonderful, happy, healthy years! (and are looking forward to many, many more!)