Teddy is constantly asking to hold his baby sister. He sings to her and kisses her head- it's the cutest thing ever :-) 

Mad!

 
This is Anna's mad face- you just can't help but laugh when she looks at you like this! 

Teddy the Builder

 
We're in the process of finishing our basement into a new master bedroom and Teddy has been the ever-willing helper through the process. Complete with his tool kit, carpenter jeans (with hammer loop) and hardhat- he has had a blast banging things and measuring boards in the basement with Jeff. 

A Box

 

Did you know that the cardboard box was recently inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame? I'm not at all surprised- my kids always have a great time with boxes! In this one they were imagining that they were on a train and it was going to crash over the side of a mountain (the stairs). Luckily, I stepped in and stopped the "train" before they figured out how to ride it down the stairs! 

8 Weeks Old

 

Chessie is showing a personality much like Meg and Anna had by this point- always smiling and cheerful :-) 

Chessie

 

Chessie at 7 weeks old (sorry about the blue PJs- they have a whole lot more wear left in them than the pink ones do!). Notice, she still has blue eyes! There's still hope that I'll have at least one child without brown eyes :-P 

Antoinette

 

NOBODY can say "No" to this face! 

The Fanco Girls

 

All 3 of the Fanco girls- in their jammies and ready for bed :-) 

Big Sister

 

Meg is such a great big sister! 

6 Weeks Old

 

6 weeks old already! Thanks Aunt Glenda for the cute outfit! 

Dancing and Singing

Teddy received a BackYardigans boom box (which Karaoke mic.) from his Nana and Grumpa and enjoys entertaining everyone with his singing and dancing. I apologize that the quality isn't great- he was jumping around a lot and I took this video with our digital camera :-( . He is singing and dancing to "The Tower of Power" (some of the words are: the tower of power is very tall, and up at the top is the key (the key), I'll find it and grab it and keep it and have it, just for you and me)- just so you can understand what he's saying :-P

Snow!

Margaret really enjoyed the snow which fell during this past weekend's blizzard :-)

 

Recorder Video

This movie was taken of Meg playing her recorder at home after her concert:

4th Grade Recorder Concert

Meg had her 4th grade recorder concert the other night. They do "recorder karate" where each song level of difficulty is assigned a belt color. For each new song that they master, they move up to the next "belt" (a colored pipecleaner wrapped around the bottom of their recorder). Margaret was one of the only 5 kids in the 4th grade to make it all the way to black belt (which was playing Amazing Grace). We are so proud of her!!

 

I swear this girl could model if she'd only stop pulling her hair out!

 

Swingin' Swingin'

Anna decided that she wanted to be a baby too (this has unfortunately been an issue with her wanting to wear diapers again too :-( ), so she put the travel swing next to Chessie's cradle swing and they enjoyed swinging together :-).

 

More family visitors

Teddy enjoyed hanging out with Uncle Andrew this past weekend :-). It's been a busy couple weeks for the kids in terms of family visits, and they have loved spending so much time with their grandparents and many of their uncles (the only ones they haven't gotten to see recently are my brother Ben and his wife Jen and my brother Brian and his wife Kim). It really makes me wish that we lived closer to our extended families- the kids have so much fun with them :-). It will be really nice for them next year when my youngest brother Bradley come out to West Michigan to attend Cornerstone University!

 

The game of Life

Meg received the game of Life from her Aunt Louise and Uncle Brian for Christmas and it has become her new favorite game to play! Uncle Andrew (Jeff's brother) was out for the weekend and with the blizzard, we were all stuck at home. Jeff, Andrew and Meg all enjoyed playing Life well into the night :-)



 

Blizzard

A picture of the snow on our deck from last weekend's blizzard. It's just over 2 feet deep in most places! (Banjo was not happy having to pack down a path to get off the porch!) 

Teddy dressed himself this morning, as he does most mornings now. However, he wanted to be like mommy and lay out his clothes first. Unfortunately, that meant when he picked them up to put on, they were backwards because he didn't think to turn them around. I tried to help but he is insisting this is the way they go, so I'll let him wear them like that today I guess :-) 

Snowy Day!!

With the snow coming down at about an inch an hour (on top of the approx 6 inches we already had) since 7 AM today, the two middle kids were begging to go out and play in the snow. So, we waited until Chessie was down for a nap, and then suited up to go have some fun!

Putting on your own gloves is hard work, and takes lots of concentration when you're only 2 years old.


Up past her knees in snow, Anna had a little bit of a hard time walking at first. 

Ready for a ride in the sled.



"Pull us FASTER mom!" (It's hard to pull a sled and take pictures at the same time!)


Teddy inspecting the shed that Jeff put together last month.


"HELP! I've fallen and I can't get up!"

 

Teddy, my big helper!


Another big helper :-)


"Okay mom, it's cold and I'm ready to go inside!" :-(


Sandwiches and juice- the perfect way to end a snowy adventure!