Lena's Second Birthday

Lena turns two today! Hard to believe that much time has gone by since she was born. We had a small party for her with just family in Indiana yesterday.

Aunt Amy did her hair for the party. French braid--pretty!

I am not a baker, but decided to make a cake instead of buying one. I frosted it and Grandma Sheryl decorated it.

Opening presents.

Lena with her soon-to-be Uncle Frank.

She got Spongebob jammies.

She also got a toy vacuum. She absolutely loves it when Daddy gets the vacuum out at home, so we thought she would like to have her own. It makes a real vacuum sound. She loved it.

She also got a chef's outfit. Apron, hat, oven mitt, and hot pad. As soon as we put it on her, she ran right into the kitchen!

She cracked us all up when she started vacuuming while wearing her apron and hat.

She insisted on keeping the oven mitt on her hand even though it made vacuuming more difficult.

She even had it on while Daddy was helping her blow out the candles on her cake.

The preggos. Hilary at 23 weeks, 2 days and Lesa at 25 weeks, 4 days. Hilary and Scott find out this week if they are having a boy or a girl.

Lena's birthday party was lots of fun. Lena had a fun day today too. She proudly announced to anyone who asked that she is two! She got a few extra cookies at fellowship time and a gift from one of our church families. After church we went out to lunch in Caledonia.

It is hard to believe that Lena is two already. She got some potty training stuff for her birthday, so we will be working on that in the near future. I have to admit that I got a bit teary when I picked out "big girl panties" for her at the store!

A Visit from the Chryst Family

Last weekend our friends from Wisconsin, the Chrysts, came to visit us with their three little girls. We had lots of fun with them. On Friday evening, the adults went out for a nice dinner while the four girls had fun playing here at home with a babysitter. Then on Saturday Brenda did a Pampered Chef show for me at the church. That was really fun and now I will have a very well-stocked kitchen! While we were doing that, the daddies took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese in Grand Rapids.

Lena riding the horsey.

Going for a ride on the school bus.

Lena and Morgan watching Bailey and Helena play Skee-ball.

Saturday evening. Lena, Helena, and Morgan entranced by cartoons.

The Chrysts worshiped with us on Sunday morning. I thought it would be nice to get a pic of all of the girls together. Lena was being extra fussy, so Jim had to sit with her so I could get a picture.

Take 1: Lena looking backwards at Helena and Jim pointing at the camera.

Take 2: Lena trying to kiss Morgan.

Take 3: Success!

We are so glad the Chrysts came to visit! We always have so much fun when we get together. We are hoping to see them again in April when we go to Milwaukee for a Cardinals game.

Valentine's Day and Fat Tuesday

We don't really celebrate Fat Tuesday here in the Roemke household, but our favorite local restaurant, The Big Easy, has a New Orleans theme and we went down there for the special breakfast they had this morning. French toast topped with bananas foster. Mmmm! Anyway, they were also giving away Mardi Gras beads, which Lena just loved. I got a couple of pics of her playing with them.

The restaurant was featured on a Grand Rapids show called "eightWest" yesterday and today. Jim and Lena were there the day they filmed it and you can see them briefly on the broadcast.

Around the 2:45 mark, the camera does a broad sweep across the restaurant and when a waitress moves out of the way, you can see Jim and Lena sitting at a table just left of the door. (If the video doesn't work for some reason, you can click on the "eightWest" in the paragraph above it and watch it there.) Okay, it looks like the video is a bit too wide for this page, but you can still see Jim and Lena since they are on the left side.

I dressed Lena in a cute dress with hearts on it for church on Sunday, which was Valentine's Day. Trying to get a good picture of her in it was quite a challenge!

I told her where to stand, but instead of standing there, she kept insisting on sitting or laying down.

What a stinker.

So ladylike! You might think this is an action shot; that I snapped the pic as she was sliding off the couch, but you'd be wrong. She sat like this for a minute or so, just letting it all hang out!

Lena's Two Year Portraits

Our little Lena will be turning 2 at the end of the month, so yesterday we got her 2 year portraits taken. She wasn't in the best mood, but we ended up getting some cute shots anyway. Here are a few.

I think they came out pretty well. To see the whole collection and to order prints, go to this site:

https://www.thesmilestation.com/home.asp?AC=LTTT0886112273TAR

Enter my name and if it doesn't come up automatically, the access code is LTTT0886112273TAR

Yesterday was also our Engagement Day. It was 8 years ago yesterday that Jim called me and told me to come over to his house after class because he had "a very important question" to ask me. Pretty sly, huh? Since it's so close to Valentine's Day, we celebrate that instead of Valentine's Day. I got him a subscription to a Lutheran journal he liked and he got me a dvd that I really wanted (The Time Traveler's Wife) and a collection of beautiful spring potted flowers.

Aren't the teeny tiny daffodils so cute? I dislike winter very much, and by February the cold weather has a tendency to get me kind of down, so having some beautiful spring flowers in the house will help a lot! And the tulips have special significance because they played a key role on the day he proposed. We have decided to make this an annual tradition and are going to designate a spot in our yard to plant these bulbs every year.

Maddie's Birthday Party

On Saturday we attended a birthday party for Lena's friend, Maddie, who is three weeks older than her. It had a Sesame Street theme, which was really cute.

The kids played a game where they had to toss the cookies to Cookie Monster.

Then they played a game where they had to throw all the trash to Oscar the Grouch. Lena and Maddie did a good job with that one.

When it came time for the gift opening, Lena had to be right in the center of the action. One time Maddie's mom told Maddie to say "thank you" to someone for a gift, and Lena looked up and said very loudly, "Thank you!" We decided that Lena must be Maddie's official spokesperson.

Overseeing the gift opening.

Boy, Lena has gotten really tall lately.

The best fun of the day was playing with the balloons.

They kept getting the bunches tangled together.

The birthday girl and her balloons.

We had lots of fun at Maddie's party. It's hard to believe the girls are two already! Lena is having a small family party in Indiana this year. After planning two huge parties last year (Lena's first and Jim's 30th), we are doing low-key birthdays this year.

January Pics

I didn't take very many pictures in January, but here are a few.

Belly pic with Hilary. January 19. I was 20 weeks and Hilary was almost 18 weeks.

We were in Indiana for a week in January so Jim could attend a conference at the seminary. While we were there, we visited our friends Trevor and Addie who have a daughter about four months younger than Lena. Here are Lena and Elizabeth enjoying some pizza at a table just their size!

After dinner, they raided the blueberries. They ate almost an entire carton! (That made for some interesting colors in the diaper the next day!)

Lena with Great-Grandma Marian.

Lena with Grandpa Brian.

Back at home. Someone got into the Kleenex box while I was out of the room. I wonder who it was?

You can see all of my January pics here.