As you most likely guessed from the title, Cora is walking! So far it is just a few steps between me and Derek or between couches, but she is off!
With the holidays over, our lives have slowed down just a little bit. The girls have been busy playing, learning, and growing like crazy!
In mid November, our friend Emily stayed with us for a couple days and the girls and I took her to Santa Monica beach. It was such a beautiful day!
For Halloween, the whole family dressed as the cast of Peter Pan. Derek was captain Hook, I was Peter Pan, Saxon was Wendy, Clay was Smee, and the girls were Tinkerbell and Tinkerbell in training. Of course, Dutch got to play along and was the Crocodile! Clay and Saxon had the opportunity to stay with us from late October until mid-November. They broke up their trip here and visited Joy and Charles and also some cousins of theirs in Southern Oregon. We really enjoyed having them stay with us.
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| Cora as Tinkerbell in training |
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| Our two fairies! |
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| The whole Peter Pan crew |
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| Finally some piggytails |
Cora has started to explore her speaking abilities and can now say Mommy, Dada, Del-da (Della), Dut (for Dutch), more, no (she does that one very clearly :), up, and down. She can roar like a lion, make elephant noises (along with the trunk motion), squawk like a monkey, and say ruff ruff for a dog. She loves to play with Della and Della has really been enjoying Cora more now that she isn't so fragile and can interact more fully. At her last appointment, Cora was 33% in weight, 90% in height and is growing 6 new teeth - all of her canines and two upper molars. Yowch!
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| Fun on the swings |
Della is in a very imaginative stage where she plays, teacher, mommy and a baby very well. She even has certain shoes and clothes that make her a teacher or Mommy. Our piano has many preloaded songs that Della loves to dance along with, but her recent favorite is the wedding march song. I explained the significance of the song, so now she likes to get dressed up and grab some flowers and "walk down the aisle". Sounds like we better start saving our money now! She continues to constantly surprise me with bits of information that she picks up and is developing into a sweet little girl.
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| Learning to pump those legs! |
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| My little love bug |
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| Beep Beep - Taxi coming through |
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| Checking out the stars... during the day :) |
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| Cora with Auntie Em |
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| Love those toes in the sand. |
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| What a great day at the beach. |
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| A beach day always includes ice cream with sprinkles, right? |
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| Making music |
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| Best friends |
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we got to spend time in San Jose with the Bokma family. It was such a wonderful time. Shannon had tons of great crafts to do with the kids - they even got to decorate gingerbread houses! Della got caught sneaking pieces off of hers after I told her not to eat the candy. She promptly let me know she wasn't eating the candy, only the white stuff (the frosting). Guess I need to be more specific next time. Louis and Shannon were a great team in the kitchen and the Thanksgiving meal was great! After Thanksgiving day, we got to go to the Hoppy Hollow amusement park. It really was a great vacation.
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| Driving around at Hoppy Hollow with the Bokma Family |
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| Opening special matching PJs! Thanks Louis and Shannon! |
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| How'd you get in that box Cora? And a better question, how are you going to get out? |
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| A Princess Treasury! A new favorite. |
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| At California Living Museum - A zoo with animals only native to California. We visited to see the Christmas lights they put up every year. It was very special and the girls both loved it! |
For Christmas, we made the long drive to Idaho. Both sides of the drive went really well. We have been getting books on CD to listen to on the way which really takes your mind off the length of the drive. Pake and Beppe had the house decorated so beautifully and welcomed us with dutch pancakes. We were able to visit lots of places while we were there - the Canyon rim, the Shoshone falls, Papa and Grandma's house to hide gifts and then again on Christmas Day, Flora and Harry's house for Ollie bollen, and last but not least, the new Twin Falls hospital.
Derek played racquetball with Andy and Mark Koopman and Chris and Julia. It was all fun and games until the wall ran into Derek's should causing a shoulder separation. The good news was that Derek was winning! He was in a sling for about 2 weeks but is recovering quite nicely.
Our friends, Rick and Heather Henderson were able to drive up from the Salt Lake City area to visit while we were in Idaho. They brought their two kids Caroline and Jack who were very enamored by farm life. While they were here, we got to explore Twin Falls and the dairy. Caroline got to milk a cow, all of the kids got to let the calves suck on their fingers, play in the cottonseed and even see Pake and Tyler deliver a calf. Jack was not ready to leave the cows...
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| Beppe treating Della to a manicure - how special! |
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| Thinking out side the box. |
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| Froggy went a courtin' he did ride, uh huh! |
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| At the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. |
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| Who's the queen of the cotton seed? DELLA! |
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| Getting ready to work. |
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| Caroline Henderson and Della checking on the cows. |
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| Feeding the ducks at a park we stopped at on our way home from Idaho. It was across the street from the popular Eric Shaatz bakery which was a great recommendation from Harry and Flora. |
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| Wrapped up like two little burritos. |
2013 wrapped up really well with God continuing to bless our family. We know 2014 has some great things in store for us!
