Iowa Birthday Trip

Hello friends and family.

I just returned from Iowa where I celebrated my 1 year birth anniversary with mommy's family. It was really great to see mommy's family and get to see many other friends while there. We spent a week at Lake Okoboji and Dad and I were excited to see the lake in it's unfrozen state. Dad and I have only seen Lake Okoboji in the winter time when we go there for Christmas. The weather was not very conducive to lake activities but we were able to manage a few days in the pool at the resort and took a boat ride around the lake. We took many walks and just spent a lot of time hanging out with the family. Below are some pictures from our time in Iowa.

Some notable events from our trip included my Grandma and Grandpa's 39th anniversary (there were even fireworks that night on the lake), visiting Aunt Joni and Uncle Barry's home in Mason City, having a visit with my Great Grandmother, and being around for Pastor Tim's farewell service and luncheon.

This weekend we will be celebrating my birthday again with my family and friends in Colorado since I was sick for the originally scheduled event. The weather looks like it should be nice and we are all feeling top notch. Look for an update on the blog about birthday party part II.

Where's my cake. This time I get to try some!

I tried some but Dad sure cleaned his plate fast. He must really like this stuff.

Maggie and Maddie help open a gift from Barry, Joni, Ethan and Erin.
Taking a stroll around Arnold's Park
By the lake with Arnold's Park behind us.
We took a boat ride on the Queen II around West Lake.
I told Dad that it looks a long way down and the water looks cold.
We found some Okoboji friends.
We got make use of my swimming lessons for one day in the pool. Dad must think he is a seal or something with that ball on his head.
Our last night in Orange City we cooked hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire. I got my own chair but did not know how to use it properly. Oh wow!
This is one of those pictures that Mom and Dad want me to post even though it can be a little embarrassing for me.

Here are some cute pictures of me with my cousins.


Thanks for keeping up with my blog and making any comments that would be fun for me to read.

Love Lydia.

May's incredible events - not including my birthday party!

Hi everybody!
I know it's been awhile again, but I just want you to have lots of info to process each blog.

Well, since my last entry it was Tulip festival - for those of you unfamiliar, my mom's hometown of Orange City, Iowa celebrates its dutch heritage every 3rd weekend in May with parades and tulip displays. Well, this year I did not get to attend, but we had our own festival in the backyard. In our festival I got to be the Tulip Queen... Boscoe was on the Tulip Court just like Aunt Julie was a few years ago in the Orange City festival. Mom and Dad said that next year I will get to experience this delightfully Dutch time - I'm looking forward to it.

Here I am posing as the Queen - elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist (that's the tulip wave - try it out)

Mom told me she had never seen a tulip queen who was the same height as the tulips - that's what made me such a perfect candidate for queen!

After finishing this year's duties as the Tulip Queen, I spent some time relaxing with Koen (he's super Dutch) after a backyard volleyball party at our house - we had Mom and Dad's volleyball team, which took first place, over to relive their championship glory days on a Saturday afternoon.

Once the tulips met the volleyball, they had to come inside for safety's sake - then they met me!

Umm... Koen... that's where the knives are... Mom are you going to let this happen?!

Following the festival, the volleyball game, and the knife snatching came meeting my dad's good friend Nate. Nate used to work with Daddy, now he lives in New York and got married last weekend - congratulations Nate and Cathy!!

Nate and I getting acquainted.

Next, I got to experience the backyard a little - turns out that I like grass and the breeze/wind in my face.

Boscoe and I both like to gulp the fresh breezes.

To prepare for our big vacation to Okoboji, IA, Mom and Dad enrolled me in swimming lessons. I had two lessons and I cried a little the first time, but the second time I was like a pro. I was doing dives, the backstroke, and the butterfly - ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit... I can't do the butterfly quite yet.

Daddy helps psych me up for lessons.

I'd like to see you all try this trick - I held this posture throughout my whole first lesson. In lesson two I was so much more advanced that I only had to hold my feet for a little while.

Grandma - we are going to have so much fun with our noodles at Okoboji!

I'm a natural in the water.

Mom dunked me - I'm stickin' with Daddy from now on in the pool!

I experienced a pretty cool thing over Memorial Day weekend. I got to take my first plane ride.
We went to California with Scott, Andrea, and Molly. Scott, Andrea and Daddy went to hang out with Andrea's folks in San Jose while Mommy and Molly went to see their old roommates from college at Pebble Beach. I went back and forth between places and I'm now a seasoned traveller in California.

Here we are in the Denver airport waiting for the plane to San Jose, CA.

I usually don't get to watch much tv, but on the plane I watched lots. By the way, I was a superb traveller - I slept most of the flight and was pleasant the rest of the time.

Daddy, Scott and Andrea went to the Monterey Aquarium while Mom took me to hang out with her friends on Friday.

They saw some pretty interesting creatures while they were there - can you spot the sea horse?
Those of you who know Lyndsay and her family can refer to their blog to see similar pictures of sea horses.

Here are Mommy's roommates - they don't look a day older than when they graduated!
left to right: Molly, Mommy, Lyndsay, Mary, Tonja, Renee, and Charissa

Daddy, Mommy and I posing for a picture at Half Moon Bay - we had lunch there on Sunday before heading in to San Francisco.

It was a pretty cold day, but that doesn't stop these hardcore surfers.

We stopped for a photo by the surfers.
This is Howie (Josh to some), Andrea, Scott, Mommy and Daddy - I was in the car with Andrea's mom enjoying the heater.

Here we are in the city, Diann, Andrea's mom guides us with the map.

The little family on the San Francisco Bay.

Well, I know this has been a lot of stuff, but I hope you enjoyed it - I know I'm having fun experiencing all these new things with Mom and Dad.
God Bless!
Love, Lydia

May already - my birthday's coming up!

Hi everyone!

Can you believe how the time has flown by. I've now seen 11 month birthday cakes - I'm a seasoned pro at posing by those sweet confections.
The eleven month birthday is just one of the big events we encountered this week.

Last Saturday we went to church for the big Arvada Covenant Church recreational volleyball league tournament. Mom and Dad just wanted me to tell you all that their team conquered all the other teams to become the reigning champs (mind you, there is a competitive league and they wouldn't stand a chance over there, but that's cool)! But by far the most exciting news of that day was that I got my very first tooth. I now have a chomper on the bottom left side of my mouth - its neighbor to the right is not far behind but has not broken through. Mom couldn't believe it since she'd thought that I had been teething for about six months prior to Saturday - she was beginning to think there were not going to be any teeth, fortunately that is not the case.

Sunday was fun. After church we went to the YMCA and I participated in my first swimming lesson. I really like the water, however, don't try to make me backfloat... I get very angry! Also, I think my feet have become my security blanket. I held onto them throughout the entire lesson. That was quite the ab workout.

Monday Mom and I just hung around the house recovering from the weekend festivities.

Tuesday Mom and I went down to see Gena and Koen at their house in south Denver. Koen and I played and slept while Mom and Gena talked, walked and relaxed.

Wednesday was my first appointment with the Audiologist. Things went okay, but I will have to go back in a few weeks to see if some fluid behind my ear drums goes away in that time. According to the audiologist I am hearing right now as if you have your fingers plugging your ears. She said that she's not worried about my overall hearing at this point - so that's good!

Thursday I stayed at home, but I joined Grandpa E in having to periodically wear a holter monitor. The monitor stayed on for 24 hours and recorded my heart beats/rythmes. I will have to do this since we found out at the cardiologist that I have Wolff-Parkinson White Syndrome. It hasn't bothered me at all to this point, but it means that my heart has the tendency to race (the opposite of Grandpa). Mom and Dad have not seen me act as if I'm having a spell, but the cardiologist wants to make sure that I'm not experiencing it. We'll keep you updated on things on that front, but right now it doesn't seem to be a problem.
The monitor is somewhat cumbersome, so I'm hoping that they got all the readings they need and it will be sometime before I have to wear that again.

Friday was my first visit to the opthamologist. They dilated my eyes and checked my retinas and lenses. Right now my vision looks really good - if I take after my dad it should stay that way, not so much if I follow in Mom's footsteps. However, I have had a blocked tear duct in my left eye pretty much since birth, so we may need to do something about that in the future. Lets just all pray that it clears up by itself!
In the evening on Friday we went out for pizza with Mom and Dad's volleyball team to celebrate their successful season - that was fun.

This Saturday we went back down to Todd, Gena and Koen's house to help them out with some home projects. Koen and I were big helpers... we played in Koen's room and I cried when Koen wanted to see my tooth. I'm a little sensitive about my chomper!

So this week's been an eventful one... I'm sure Mom and I will go back to our laid back days soon, but not tomorrow. We'll be heading down to Grandma and Grandpa T's for Mother's Day tomorrow after church - yippee!!

Okay, I'm done updating you on this week, here are some pictures for you all to enjoy:

Boscoe and I have lots of fun playing on the floor downstairs - hopefully I'll be able to "crawl" like him soon (although Mom kinda likes that I can't get into a lot of stuff right now)

Daddy lets me have my own remote when we watch tv together (he thinks that I don't know that he takes the batteries out of mine)

We went down to see my new cousin Liv and Uncle Jason and Aunt Lauren a while back - it was great!

This is me practicing for my big swimming lesson debut.

You can see my cool pack just above my bum - this is my holter monitor. I had to wear some shorts over my sleeper so that I had somewhere to clip the monitor.

Thursday was such a nice day that Mom, Boscoe and I spent sometime outside playing with my toys - I love this time of year, everything is so green.

My Mom made me this sun hat - I know aunt Jenness, it looks like the hats my mom used to make fun of you for putting on my cousins Maggie and Maddie.

I love chocolate cake - not that I've ever had any....

....or have I?!

You get to decide if you think Mom got to me before I put that whole handfull in my mouth!

Well, that's all for now. Love you all,
Lydia

News galore!

Hey everyone - I have so many things to get you caught up on!

• The results are in: the photo contest tells Mom and Dad that we must choose every picture taken from my 9 month photo shoot. Unfortunately, we don't have enough wall space! Just kidding - Mom made a 5x7 of #1 and printed out some wallet size of photo #5 and all the others are printed in 4x6's for friends and family to view when they visit.... Mom also wanted you all to know that her favorite changes everyday - sometimes her favorite isn't even one of the ones I posted on the blog.

Just an example of one of the photos not placed on the blog before, but catches Mom's attention everytime she sees it.

• I also thought you all should know that I had my 10 month birthday on the 8th! We celebrated with yet another cake and also had added excitement in our hearts in anticipation for Grandpa and Grandma E's arrival from Iowa - they had spring break over the Easter holiday. They came after I was in bed on Wednesday night (actually early Thursday morning) so I was so surprised and excited to see them eating breakfast with me on Thursday! Unfortunately, they had to leave to get back for teaching school on Tuesday, so they left this morning - I gave them a sleepy wave as they took off into the sunrise.

Mommy woke me up from my comfy spot on Dad's lap for a picture with my cake - she never heard the saying, "Never wake a sleeping baby!"

On Saturday we went for a hike by Morrison, CO with g-pa and g-ma. We had to enable the 4-wheel drive on the stroller for the trip.

Mommy just liked this picture, so I'll humor her with putting it on the blog.

Peek-a-boo!!

• Did you know that I got to celebrate my 1st Easter this weekend?! I think Easter is my favorite holiday - it has so much meaning! I really liked the Easter church service, even though I had to enjoy it from the intercom in the nursery. When I'm not thinking about the true meaning of Easter, it's kinda fun to get all dressed up and hunt for Easter eggs that come from a rabbit (now, I'm pretty little, but I just don't really understand all that)!

This is me getting ready for Easter - I really liked my purple dress!

"What? did you say there's something behind me?"

"I'll turn around very slowly."

"Boscoe, you look first, I'm scared."

All that worrying for nothing - it was a wonderful surprise!

And when I was done with one, another popped up! Easter just keeps getting better all the time!

• One of the things I'm most excited to tell you all is that I have a new cousin!!! My Aunt Lauren and Uncle Jason had a baby girl yesterday (on Easter Sunday - another reason to celebrate). My new cousin's name is Liv Morgan and I saw her tonight and she doesn't do much, but she sure is cute - I think we'll be best of friends soon! I could tell that my uncle and aunt were beside themselves with joy and love for their new little gal - and you know what, my uncle Jason still played with me - what a good uncle!

Introducing Liv Morgan! She's precious.

Grandma and I couldn't be more excited about the new little baby!

Well everyone, I think that's all for now. Hope you've enjoyed the journey!
Love, Lydia

Photo Contest

Hi friends and family!

So Kristi sent us a cd of all of my 9 month photos... she did such a wonderful job that Mom and Dad are having a hard time choosing which of the 124 pix we should get some big prints of. That's where you all come in - you can help us decide which picture is most worthy of big print!

Mom and Dad narrowed it down to 5 pictures to choose from. Here are those five and you can comment with the number of your choice.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

I just realized that 2 & 5 are pretty similar... but I guess you can decide which backdrop you like best.

Have a Happy April Fool's Day tomorrow!
Love,
Lydia