The Arizona Wedding

Last Thursday, the four of us flew to Phoenix, Arizona for a Wurdeman family wedding. We spent four days in the sunshine attending the rehearsal dinner, hanging out with our cousin Trevor and dancing at the wedding. The kids had a great time! The rest of the family is exhausted!

Our flight took off around the time Sammy usually naps. There was so much going on that she was unable to settle down to sleep on the plane. Once we hit the road in the rental car, she was out. It is hard to tell because of the sun in her eyes, but she is drinking her milk sound asleep.



The kids LOVE hotels. Andy remarked on several occasions "this is quite a hotel".



Friday morning we took the kids to the park to take in some of that Arizona sunshine. Sammy loves the slides.



"the double stroller"



Sharing a milk shake



All dressed up for the rehearsal dinner.



Baby Jackson at the wedding



The ceremony was a beautiful outdoor wedding. We kept the kids busy with snacks (as Andy is demonstrating) my phone, the diaper bag and books. Sammy is always far more entertained by my phone and items in the diaper bag than her own things.

At this point during the ceremony, Andy took over as the wedding photographer and spent the remainder of the wedding in the aisle taking pictures. Here are two of the better ones. As you can sort of tell by the pictures, it was a beautiful ceremony full of color, ritual and tears.

At some point during the photo session, Andy put his little finger print on the lens because all of the pictures taken after that point have a smudge in the middle...oh well. I'm counting on the rest of the family for some good shots!

Dancing

Flying home. Andy's favorite part of the whole trip was predictably the airplane. He was quite excited to learn that drinks and snacks are served on every flight. In this picture, he has his seat belt on both himself and his buddy Tata to keep them safe.

Our Shining Star

On Monday at Preschool, Andy was awarded the Shining Star. He received this award for his good behavior and listening skills. Thank God he can demonstrate these in public! He also was able to answer all of the questions about their unit topic. It helps that they are learning about Transportation, a favorite for him. The winner is allowed to take home Bart Bear until the next class. We are assuming all of the kids want to sleep with Bart, Andy was no exception. He could probably use a little spray of Lysol.
To celebrate, Scott took the kids to the park after school. It's amazing how much they both have changed since the last time it was warm enough to go to the park.

The Winter That Never Ends

With all of the snow and freezer temperatures outside, we have spent a lot of time inside this winter. All this time indoors gives Andy and Sammy lots of time to work on playing together and sharing. Some days they are better at this than others. We currently spend our days playing chase, building spaceships and coloring. Unfortunately, the markers were taken away when Andy decided Sammy needed tiger stripes drawn on her arms and face. It's a good thing they're washable.

Mastering the sit-n-spin


Building


Silly girl


Eating yogurt by herself

The little rocker

The tallest tower ever with Trio blocks

Eighteen Months!

Our little Sammy is 18 months now. At her checkup, she finally made it above the 5th percentile. She is now 21 lbs and 31 in. tall. Despite her size, she can hold her own with her brother. She becomes quite vocal with a "delightful" scream when she's wants something he has. Trying to keep up with Andy keeps her very busy. They enjoy chasing, playing hide and go seek, blowing bubbles in the bathtub, reading books and dancing together. She loves to play and is very good at entertaining herself. Highlights from the last three months included a broken finger (courtesy of a bedroom door), the end of bottles and playing in the snow for the first time.

A Snow Day

It snowed again here in KC. At least this time, the temperature was above zero! We took advantage of the beautiful day and perfect wet snow to build a snowman and a snow fort/slide. We also did a little sledding down the "hill" from our neighbors house. Sammy struggled to get around in her boots and snowpants, but she was a big fan of the sled. Needless to say, it was a good nap day at our house.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We celebrated a very quiet white Christmas this year. Santa's arrival was highly anticipated this year by Andy. Sammy had no idea why Andy was so excited, but it was enough to get her excited too. The highlights for Andy were a new bike, Transformers, and Legos. Sammy has a new kitchen, but prefers to do whatever big brother is doing. Sammy is very into doing "big" things like Andy.

Christmas Eve in our Christmas PJ's...


Decorating cookies for Santa...


Opening gifts Christmas morning...

Andy's Fourth Birthday Extravaganza

Last weekend we celebrated Andy's 4th birthday. We are still recovering! We started the weekend with our annual trip to Union Station to see the model trains and Crown Center to eat at Fritz's. Apparently, the novelty of a train bringing chicken nuggets will never get old for Andy (his sister liked the trains, too!).

On Saturday, Dan and family along with my Mom and Ron arrived for Andy's party. This year the party was outsourced to Andy's indoor soccer program. He invited his whole preschool class for an afternoon of games, pizza and chocolate cake. The kids seemed to have a great time...and likely slept well after all that running!

Sharing lunch...

Nathan's ready to party

Andy and the girls...

On Sunday, we celebrated an early Christmas. The kids had a great time playing together. Andy wants to know when Abby is coming back!

On Andy's actual birthday, he opened a few more gifts from us and we took him to the restaurant of his choice for dinner. Since his birthday, Andy has been playing non-stop with his new toys. He has combined several of his favorites (e.g., construction site, fire station, garbage trucks) to make an elaborate "city."