Cousins

Tonight Jeff and Renee cashed in a couple of the MANY babysitting hours that they've banked over the last 3-1/2 years. We put Tyler and Miriam in the bouncy seat together and they were quite cozy and happy in there together until Miriam starting trying to eat Tyler's hair. We're pretty sure she's just jealous of his thick locks! Although Tyler looks bigger in the picture, Miriam does actually have about a pound on him as of their weigh-ins this past week. We'll see how quickly he catches up...

Trains!

This morning we took the kids to Casey's Uncle Bob and Aunt Anita's house to see the trains. We did this last year and Esther thought it was pretty cool, but Peter was a little too young to get into it. This year Peter picked out his engineer hat to wear (so of course Esther needed hers too) and was absolutely in his glory. Esther enjoyed herself once again too. Uncle Bob let them drive the trains, blow the whistle, and load and unload logs. Aunt Anita had the tough job of entertaining Miriam while we were there. It was a great outing, and we appreciate them allowing us to visit!

God Is So Good

Peter has taken up singing in the last couple months. He sings a lot, and it's been so fun to listen to his progress as he goes from singing a couple words of a song to getting most of it right. He also does quite well with singing in tune. His favorite song is God Is So Good, and his rendition goes something like this:

God so so

God so so

He so so

To me

He pay pay (He answers prayer)

He pay pay

He so so

To me

This morning I was feeding Miriam in her room and suddenly I heard Peter belting out this in his room. Wouldn't it be great if that could always our first thought when we wake up in the morning? I know it's usually not mine, but Peter reminded me that I should wake up every day and be thankful. Life lessons from an almost 2-year-old are the best!

Tired Kids.....or Boring Daddy?

With the arrival of Miriam, I decide to take some time off this week. This morning, I thought it would be good to take the other two kids out for a while and leave Mommy and Miriam at home. We went and got donuts and then out to the mall to ride the carousel. Apparently, they are still recovering from the fun weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's.

More Pictures...

My very talented cousin (in-law) Melissa came to the hospital again and took some beautiful pictures of Miriam. Here is a link if you want to check them out...

http://melissadiekemaphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3960344#230153179

Welcome Miriam Kay Kuperus!!

Today the latest Kuperus made her appearance. In true Kuperus child fashion, this one also had to be induced. We checked into the hospital last night at 9:30, and at 7:50 this morning, Miriam Kay (Kay is my Mom's middle name) entered the world (with a great scream). She weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. Everything went well (of course always easy for the Dad to say) and we were blessed to have one of our good friends, Jen Carlson, as our nurse through the night.

Grandma and Grandpa W brought the kids over late this morning for introductions. Peter ran right over to Miriam with a "Hi baby!" and a kiss, and then proceeded to spend the rest of his time pointing out the trucks and construction vehicles outside.

Esther immediately assumed her big sister role and was quite proud to be holding her new sister. (We think that since now Peter is almost the same size as Esther, she is quite relieved to have someone else in the house that is smaller than her again).

We are very blessed and thank God for another healthy and beautiful baby; we look forward to introducing her to everyone!

Baby Name

Today Esther and I were sitting on the couch reading some books. I told her to ask the baby whether it was a boy or girl. She leaned over and said to my belly, "Hey, are you a boy or a girl?" I asked her what the answer was and she said "boy." So then I asked her what we should name it if it's a boy. First she said that we should use the same name as Uncle Jeff and Aunt Renee's baby. I said that it might be confusing if we had 2 Tylers, and asked if she could think of any other ideas. She said, "How about Santa?" Santa Kuperus. Hmmm... I think he'd definitely be the only one in his class at school with that name!

Welcome Tyler David!

Casey's twin sister Renee and her husband Jeff were due with their first child the same day as we are due. It's been fun being pregnancy buddies with her, but it's even more fun that we have a new nephew and cousin! Tyler was born on Sunday morning, and we are so excited that he is here! I took the kids over to their house to meet him tonight. Peter was more interested in the cars and trucks at their house, but Esther was totally enamored. Hopefully she'll feel the same way about her new little brother or sister!

Gingerbread Church

When I asked Esther if she wanted to build a gingerbread house again this year, she stated that she wanted to build a church instead. I don't know how she got that idea, but next year we are going back to non-steepled buildings.

After some discussion over who was going to be the general contractor on the job, we were ready to begin. We settled on Daddy being in charge during the building phase, and Esther being in charge during the decorating phase.

Esther helped make the gingerbread and then took a break while Daddy tried to make the pieces fit together. Daddy has learned that with enough icing, you can make anything stick together.

Once we had it all together, Esther took over and helped decorate with all the candy we had purchased a few nights before. The biggest problem we had was keeping Mommy away from all our candy. (She tries to blame it on the pregnancy, but we all know better).

Peter Progress Report

I realize that we haven't done a post about Peter recently. So that we don't forget all the fun things that he's doing and learning right now, here's a little list for posterity...

1. Puzzles, coloring and playing with Play-doh without eating it.
2. Playing with trucks, cars, and anything with wheels.
3. Making fire truck, police car, train and other vehicle noises.
4. Trying on hats and shoes (still girly ones if that's what's available).
5. Having pretend and real conversations on the phone.
6. Using a lot of phrases/sentences.
7. Calling Esther "Oh" which is apparently the abbreviated version of "Eh-oh" which he called her for a while.
8. Learning a couple colors and counting to 3.
9. Saying he is 2 when we ask how old he is (or anyone else for that matter). We figured it's not worth correcting him now with his birthday only a month away!
10. Wanting to push the garage door button every time we come home from somewhere. He will start saying "I reach" to claim his turn when we are still miles from home.

He is such a fun-loving kid and he makes us laugh a lot. Hopefully he'll adjust ok to being a middle child sometime in the next few weeks!