Helpful Children

Our camera broke 2 weeks ago and we finally replaced it on 'Black Friday.' So there is a gap in our pictures and we missed capturing the Thanksgiving parties. So here a few from this weekend after all the festivities ended.

Evelyn can be very helpful. Seriously. If we ask her to help with a chore she usually is excited to be of service. Laundry is one of her favorites, especially when she gets a basket ride.

Momma gets the wet clothes out of the washer and Evie shoves them into the dryer.She also loves to help with dinner. Her role is to supervise the preparations and taste test to ensure we are up to her standards.

And she straightens branches on the Christmas tree when they don't look right.

Another recent Evie-ism is confusion of my name. Instead of calling me "daddy" she consistently calls me "momdy" and sometimes calls Erin "da-ma." Her favorite English (correctly used) words are cookie, socks, hat, shoes, and doggy.

Photographer Erin

Erin likes to try to get Evie to pose. Usually marshmallow bribes do the trick. Here are some of the good ones from October.

Ready to go out - with her purse, glove, and penguin in tow...
Notice the marshmallow in her left hand.
And again...

Perry the penguin

RBD Tour: Season 5

This is the 5th year of the Randy-Ben-Derek U of M football tour. Previously we traveled to Northwestern, Indiana, Illinois, and Notre Dame together.

This year was Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a very fun road trip marred with a very frustrating game. Michigan got blown out 45-24.

On Friday we drove to Chicago and hung out with our cousin Scott for the night. We got there at 9, slammed a 16 oz. energy drink at 10, played games until 2, couldn't sleep (duh), and then left at 6:30 for the game.
Apparently I'm famous in Madison...
We made it to the stadium with about an hour of free time to walk around. Overall the Wisconsin fans were very courteous and friendly.
While walking around we saw a tent setup and people handing out free Sports Illustrated issues highlighting the Heisman trophy. So we walked over to the tent and found out the actual Heisman trophy was inside and we could get our picture with it.

Also inside the tent was Dan Patrick interviewing former Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne. It was pretty cool.


The game was exciting until halfway through the third quarter when Wisconsin ran away with it. So our record is now 3-2 in these away games. Hopefully the Wolverines will turn it around soon.

Christmas Lights 2009

My obsession continues. This year the lights were up by October 31 and promptly displayed on November 1. I added some color diversification and didn't waste any lighting on the bushes, which were fully covered by snow 50% of the time last year.

Here is my Christmas light progression. 2005-2007 were at my Kentwood house.

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

I think the green and red trees on the left are a nice touch. I also doubled the number of lights on the center tree and did a blue/white combo on the tree to the right. The house itself still has plenty of room to expand :)

We even trimmed the tree and decorated the inside of the house the first week of November. Evie was curious, and of course had to help 'da' with his project.

Evie has the Christmas spirit! Here is a video of her playing with her favorite new toy - Perry the Penguin.

FeFe the Poodle

Halloween weekend was a lot of fun with a 1.5-year-0ld. Evie had no idea what was going on.

For her own good, she doesn't remember when we carved a pumpkin last fall and put her in it. She curiously watched us carve and liked the squishy pumpkin feel.



At night Evie dressed up as "FeFe the Poodle." Erin brought her to Lindsay's and G&G Veldhofs and then I took her down the street to Trick-or-Treat. She made it about 15 houses and slowly figured out what was going on. By the end she knew to go up to the front door and expected some kind of candy. She also figured out that if she pointed to the bag, dad would give her a piece of chocolate to keep her moving. She polished off a kit-kat and half a twix before we made it back home.