More of Baby Seth...

Natalie posted some great pictures on her blog of Baby Seth. I wanted to share some of them as I know many of you are keeping track of him!

Two weeks old - he's just precious.

Proud big cousin!

Proud Auntie!

Our family meeting Seth for the first time.

Seth was jaundice and had to use this special blanket with a light. He looked like a little Glowworm. So, here he is with his Glowworm!

Meeting Grandpa Anderson...

and Grandma Anderson.

After we came home from visiting Seth, Michael asked Eleanor what her favorite part about our trip was. Without hesitation she said, "Meeting the baby!" One never knows what will come out of a 3-year-old and so we were so happy that she didn't say "eating waffles at the hotel in my pajamas!"

Miriam updates!

I wanted to post a couple more pictures of Miriam in her 9th month. She is now getting 2 teeth (both bottom front) and has a constant runny nose. She is also trying so hard to figure out how to crawl or get anywhere. She isn't crawling, but kind of scoots and turns on her butt. She can get pretty far with that! She prefers to sit up and scoot versus laying on the floor and rolling. Eleanor's toys are way more interesting than her own (much to Eleanor's dismay!). We've seen her do signs for "more" and "food" and just the other night she said "Da" and waved to Michael. She is still such a sweetie pie and we love her so. It's been so fun to watch the sibling interaction (good, bad or otherwise!).

Visiting Baby Seth...

Here is our dear, sweet new nephew & cousin Seth. We took our first visit to see him in the last 24 hours. We left yesterday and got up to Grand Rapids at about 3:30 in the afternoon. We visited him last evening & this morning before we left. He has a very sweet temperment and did very little crying. The girls (especially Eleanor) loved him!

Look at the size different - Miriam & Seth are just 9 months apart!

Cousins!!

Thanks to Jordan & Natalie for letting us come and see Seth. They are already great parents and it was fun to see them enter into the world of parenthood! We hope it won't be long before we get to visit him again.

Introducing...

It's a boy!

Our beautiful nephew (and cousin to the girls!) Seth Laurence Anderson was born on Wednesday, February 10, 2010. He weighted 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 21 inches long.

I know that many of you have heard me talk about my brother and his wife and so I wanted to update you all. Jordan, Natalie and Baby Seth are doing great! We're planning on visiting him for the first time next week. Can't wait to hold him!!

"Children of the heavenly Father safely in his bosom gather;

Nestling bird nor star in heaven such a refuge ne'er was given."

Valentine's photo shoot outtakes...

Just some of the many pictures I took to get "the perfect shot!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our darling Valentines!

Miriam - 9 month portraits

Miriam Grace is 9 months old!

I took her to JCPenney's this past week for some portraits. I didn't take her in at 6 months because we got some nice shots of her when Kris Harms took our Christmas card photo. She did really well at the portrait session, but once again, wasn't super smiley! The photographer was still able to capture some nice images. Enjoy!

She's really into sticking her tongue out lately. So, it was hard to get a shot of her with her tongue in her mouth!

Just this week Miriam has had some breakthroughs. She looked down at Dolly (from her booster seat where Dolly is always patiently waiting for a Gerber baby cereal puff to fall!) and said "Da." And, when asked "where's Dolly?" she'll look over to where Dolly is. She also used the sign for food (which is bringing her fingers to her mouth) a couple of times this past week. Amazing! She continues to be super content and no one makes her laugh more than Eleanor. It's very sweet to witness the sibling interactions. Nine months is such a perfect age! :)

Oops...

I was almost done with the Christmas post when a picture of Mari Lee with the girls was deleted. Blogger doesn't let you insert a picture just anywhere...so, it wouldn't have made sense for me to add it to that post, chronologically speaking (all my Blogger friends will understand this!). So, to make up for it I'm posting 2 now!

Christmas 2009

I'm finally getting a sampling of the Christmas photos posted! As most of you know, our Christmas travels (which lasted almost 2 weeks!) started in Bismarck, ND at my childhood home. We beat all the bad weather by leaving on Dec. 22nd. We got snowed in pretty good, however, and spent many days in the house as the plow didn't come through the back roads near my parent's house. We had plenty of food and no where to go, so it was fine!

Eleanor exploring outside my parent's house.

So much snow!

Michael and Eleanor playing in the ditch. There was so much snow that the ditch is level with the street. Here Michael is throwing Eleanor in!

Perfect landing!

We used Bahnka's huge shovel as a sled!

Making cookies with her new Princess apron. (Reader's note: Eleanor is in her Snow White dress for most of these pictures. That is just the way it was!)

My brother Joe & Eleanor watching a movie and just chillin'.

Miriam playing jungle gym on Daddy.

My Mom was able to borrow an Exersaucer from a friend. That really came in handy. Miriam seemed to like this one better than the one we have at home! This is where we put her while we opened all of our presents. Also, we had kind of a scare with Miriam in this contraption. As you can see in the picture there is a peace lily behind her. The Exersaucer slowly crept closer to the plant (without us noticing) and she ate part of a leaf. She threw it all up and was fine...but, Michael was on the phone with poison control pretty quick!

Our family photo from Christmas Eve night. We were able to make it to a Christmas Eve service. But, that was our only venture in 3 days!

This is from Christmas morning and Eleanor discovering her gifts from Santa! She had been very specific on what she wanted from Santa and it never changed. Ever since she saw a promotional card in her Snow White DVD case she wanted the Snow White vacuum and Snow White bucket & mop set. She called them the "Snow White sets!" She also wanted a Snow White dress. We got the hint and Santa pulled through the blizzard!

Showing off her new "sets." Yes, we fully realize that we're playing into every gender stereotype there is. Here's the poor little princess with all her cleaning supplies! For some reason, my house isn't any cleaner - but, the dwarfs cottage is spotless!

Grandma "Karma Karma" & "Bahnka."

On the 29th we left for St. Cloud. Here are the girls with their gifts from Matt & Melissa. Miriam got a baby bible and Eleanor got a Princess Tiana doll & CD from the movie.

Eleanor in front of Grandma Mari Lee's tree in her new little outfit from ML.

We had such a great time over our long break. The weather unfortunately didn't cooperate for Jordan & Natalie and they were unable to make it to Bismarck to join us. We missed not seeing them, but still had a great time. Thanks again to all of you for making our holiday so special!