Little Miss Funny

What does one say? :)

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A Merry Christmas to all

We have been over (several) rivers, through a few woods, to and back from Grandma's house. We enjoyed wonderful hospitality with Kerry and Barbara. We were able to see Jack's sister and her family in from Colorado, as well as both of his brothers and their wives. Caroline had a cold and was a little out of sorts at first. But, as you can see here, she was able to enjoy her family. Here she is making sure that her Grandma is fully informed about all of her baby dolls' needs. So fun. We were blessed by time with family as well as rest and relaxation.

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First haircut

I couldn't take her hair being in her eyes any more (or that her hair was constantly in her mouth or runny nose). So, I decided that it was time to give Caroline her first haircut. I think that it turned out pretty cute with the little bangs, right?

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Wheeee!!

Caroline had her first sledding experience yesterday. (She was able to stay toasty warm thanks to this snow suit from Nana). At first she was completely opposed. But after the second or third run, she got pretty excited about it. I have to admit that Mom had as much fun as she did.

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For the parents among you

Caroline is very proud of herself this evening. She used the potty for it's intended purpose (which, by the way is not unrolling the toilet paper incidentally). She is very excited. I'm not holding my breath for any actual potty training. But it is fun to see her so excited!

Sent from my iPhone

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Christmas cheer

This year, we have two Christmas trees--the "no touch" tree and Caroline's tree. She didn't pull it down last year. We will see how it goes this year. She had a great time "directing" where the ornaments should go with very determined "right here" directions. Compliance required some modifications since all of her directions were within 2' of the floor.

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Transformation complete

Thanks to our wonderful contractor Steve Forbes, our kitchen's transformation is complete! (Well, it is all done but the unpacking). We have a dishwasher that washes, a big new sink, a stove with all the burners working and best of all, you cab just about fit two people! We are really excited about the new look. We are also grateful that the drier no longer vents into the kitchen wall!

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Pretty

Doesn't it look nice all grouted? Dishwasher going in now.

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Beginning of the Christmas season

Break out the glitter glue, markers and crayons and the garland. It is time to decorate for the Christmas season. I'm taking a Christmas tree my Aunt Janet gave me years ago (it has been on of the longer used child hood present incidentally) and helping Caroline decorate it. Right now she is covered in (washable) glitter glue and markers as she decorates our construction paper ornaments. We'll decorate her tree with some treats later today (after the glitter glue finally dries).

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More cuteness

When you have nieces that are less than two weeks apart, buying matching outfits is necessary. I bought Abby and Hannah little outfits in France. How cute are they? I mean really, these little girls are just adorable.

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Mmmm

What could be better than being spoiled at Nana and Poppa's house? Getting to help make pancakes at Nana and Poppa's house. Caroline is currently wolfing down her third pancake. She should be good and full of sugar here in about five minutes. Yummmm

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Two defenseless babies

What happens when you have one aunt, a grandmother, a new mom, and a Target run? Two defenseless little girls who couldn't say--no, no you are dressing us up in ridiculous outfits. Since my nieces Hannah and Abby are too little to argue, I got them matching outfits for this particularly cute photo op. We are going to dress the toddlers up later. Should be funny!

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How cute is Abby?

Is she not so cute? She's my perfectly adorable niece.

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Extended Family Fun

We had a great time today with my Aunt Helen, Uncle Dan and their dear friends (who we also think are great) Pam and Luke. We took them to the Newseum and then to a nearby restaurant called Jaleo. It was a blast. Caroline was particularly enamored with having four people who are clearly enthusiastic grandparents around. She spent much of the time giggling and smiling. I was trying to get a picture here of her wearing Aunt Helen's sun glasses (which was a good look for her I have to say). She was a trooper and went with the flow. We were so very glad to see them all!

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Another step in the right direction

We have countertops!!

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Coming along

We are continuing to see progress in the kitchen! The base cabinets are all in and many of our top cabinets are up. Our new appliances come soon and things are starting to come together!

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Pumpkin Carving

It is that time of year...pumpkin carving. Jack made sure that we had them and that we got them carved. Jack's is the upside down face, fun huh? Caroline didn't want hers carved, but wanted to color hers. She had a great time with markers while we carved. Too cute.

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Why doesn't this work?

Caroline has been trying to figure out how to put her clothes on. (check out the current outfit). She is very frustrated by the realization that you cannot, in fact, wear two pairs of pants at once.

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Woah

Yee haw! Caroline is all dressed up as a cowgirl for day care today. How cute is she?

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A little more than half way.

Well, we have made it to Newark. Our connection is a little delayed, but we should be leaving soon. Whew. Almost there.

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Last day

We have been out of e-mail communication for the past few days. But we have checked into a hotel by the airport and leave tomorrow (boo). We have had a great trip. As you can see even our toddler is having fun. (this is on the Costa Brava in the north of Spain along the coast). We have been able to really relax and have a wonderful time. Caroline has essentially been eating cheese and bread in the many forms (pasta & cheese, croissants & cheese, cheese pizza, bread & cheese) with apples and bananas on the side. She even ate stinky cheese!! We loved France and the drive back to Barcelona was beautiful. And now for the loooong flight home. :)

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Montserrat

Today we went from Barcelona (with lots of luggage) to La Seu d'Urgell, right outside Andorra. We stopped at a mountain top monastery called Montserrat. We had to take a little train from the base of the mountain up to the top. (Caroline was fascinated by all the green, but sad not to see any cows). She ran around in the square an we saw a beautiful church. We didn't end up hearing the monks, but I found two great books, one of which is the best Bible story book I have found (well, most fun...it has lists of flaps you can pull up to see what is underneath). We then drove up into the mountains, checked into our hotel and found out it was special market day. It was a HUGE market. Bigger than The normal street fair. There was lots and lots of food (we spoiled dinner with YUMMY cheese). I am eating chocolate cake we bought as I type. Caroline got to meet lots of fun animals too like cows, sheep and a few doggies. (The "farm" animals appeared to be show animals of some sort and were in pens). We ate paella and Caroline has passed out for the day. Plenty of fun for one day. Tomorrow Carsaconne (Jack is laying down people in the plains one the way. Those of you who understood that thought it was funny. You know you did.)

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First lunch

Here is a very happy Caroline who was helping with what the hobbits would call "first lunch". (In fairness her favorite part was feeding the congregating pigeons).

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The park

Here is a picture of the park.

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Sagrada Familia

We took a LONG walk today from our place to Gaudi's cathedral, Sagrada Famailia. It is quite the place. It is wild and, well, drippy. Everything kind of looks like an ice cream cone on it's way out. Here is a picture of it. We walked from there to second breakfast (not to be confused with first lunch we had a bit later) to park Guell, also by Gaudi. It was supposed to be an upscale residential district, but it went bust and now it is a great park. We walked all over the park (Caroline napped) and generally had a lovely day.

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La Rambla

Today we spent a good part of the day walking along a street called La Rambla. The street is full of flower sellers, bird sellers and a huge food market. Caroline was particularly excited about the birdies, as you can see. She was trying to tell them to say cheep cheep. Too cute.

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We made it!

The Kollers have arrived in Barcelona. We had a pretty good flight. Thanks for praying for the extra seat Nana. We ended up having a row of five to ourselves in the bulkhead. The arm rests did not all come up, so that meant creative use of space. But Caroline slept/dozed the majority of the flight. She was a trooper. We made our tight connection in Frankfurt thanks to some stellar efficiency by Lufthansa. Wow were we impressed. We got here and found the view you see off of our little balcony. So fun. We are
Two blocks from a park, above a cafe and just around the corner from a lovely church. Life is good. And now we are going to try to stay up for another hour and then pass out ourselves!!

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We are off!

After having to re buy Caroline's ticket (luckily she is just the fees) we have successfully made it to the gate. Whew. We thought it was best to bring Caroline. :)

The wonderful gate agent gave us a bulkhead seat, a spare seat and a bassinet. Hooray!

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Happy fall!

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Starting the Morning Off on the Right Note!

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Seriously isn't she adorable?

Thanks to Aunt Helen for this wonderful dress. Isn't she the cutest
little girl?

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Lest anyone question our loyalties

Caroline and I (ok mostly me) were bummed that we didn't get the
Steeler's game yesterday. But we made the best of it anyway. Caroline
was particularly pleased with herself when she realized that, although
our chair is too high to climb into with the cushions, it is just
right if she pulls the seat cushion out. So, I was happythe Steelers
won. She was happy to get in a chair. Generally the whole house was
happy. ;)

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Vehicle bonding

We took advantage of the absolutely beautiful weather today and went
to the park for a long time. Jack and Caroline dis some "engine" work
on a push toy. Under Caroline's careful guidance, Jack learned how to
fill the front of the car with bark (a skill Caroline mastered earlier
today). Too much!

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Horsey!

This past Saturday my friend Amanda and I took our girls to Oxen Hill
farm, about 15 minutes from our houses. It isn't anything fancy-a
working well kept 19th century farm with (thankfully) no tourist
gimmicks. They got to gave a goat sniff their hands, cluck at the
chickens, neigh at the horses and moo at the cows. There was plenty of
open space so they ran around until they just couldn't walk any more.
(Caroline went from running one minute to sitting down crying and
begging to be carried the next. Poor thing). They were enthralled by
the chain locking the horses in (it made fun clanging noises). They
also tried to climb the chicken coop's wiring. They git ridiculously
hot, sweaty and dirty. All in all a successful and fun outing!

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Now this is fun

Today is festival day at Caroline's day care. They have a moon bounce
and lots of water to play in. The kids all got lais and sunglasses
too. As you can see Caroline isn't having any fun.

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Well..

Wrong feet, but the right idea.

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Mmmm Yogurt

I'm not sure how much of this actually made it into her tummy, but she
sure did have fun eating it.

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You might remember....

A few weeks back we had a pretty bad storm hit our neighborhood. It
sent trees crashing into cars and homes. Well the storm pulled the
seat covers off of our lawn equipment. We immedietly found 2, a
neighbor found one in the street but we could never find the fourth
until a fee days ago.

Well Julie, Caroline and I were on a walk in our neighborhood and
glanced up in a tree about 75 yards from our house and found the 4th
cover lodged in a tree. Wow

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I feel like dressing myself should be easier

Maybe if she wasn't already dressed it would go better.

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So that's where that was

Remember how we couldn't find our chair cover for the back yard? We
found it. By the road. 100 yards from our house. In a tree. Weird.

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What a fun retreat!

We are back from a really fun retreat!! Here's a picture of all of us out in front of the retreat center at Shrine Mont.

We had a wonderful weekend with Dr. Corne Bekker, who spoke on the Psalms of ascent. He was inspiring, but called us onward to be present with God.

Of course, there had to be some fun time while we were there as well. Our friend Patrick put together quite a fun scavenger hunt that had kids and adults alike running around. Here's a picture of our friend Murray helping our pastor's daughter Gracie figure out what comes next in the scavenger hunt.
No church retreat is complete without lots and lots of good snacks. People brought cookies and we had lots of other yummy food, as you can tell from Jennifer Glade's big smile...her daughter Sara (and Gracie's little sister) wasn't quite so sure.
Shrine Mont is located in what used to be an old hotel (think 1870s sort) with a huge wrap around porch. That type of porch requires, of course, many rocking chairs. Caroline thought that they were great fun.
She was super excited when she got herself into this one and was rocking for all her might. She's saying "cheese" in this picture, but she just got done saying "wheeeeeeee"
Here is a great picture of a number of the little girls that were there. My colleagues at work have been calling this the "gap ad" photo. Of course, that's only because this picture was taken very first thing in the morning, before a breakfast of pancakes. (Note that the Lord blessed us with wonderful weather, especially for the middle of August. Caroline had already taken off her jacket, but you can see that a lot of the other little girls have jackets.)

Here's a picture of the place we stayed (you can see the hotel in the way back left).

As you can see, Jack and Caroline had quite a good time. She was really, really dirty when we got home (we had to wash her hair twice). But she had a blast. There were lots of new fun places to explore and run around. She got to play with lots of little girls from church. There was macaroni and cheese for lunch one day. What's not to like?

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Off to retreat

We have organized the church retreat for Christ the King (our church)
an we are on our way. You can't quite tell from this picture, but
Caroline is between a cooler on one side and a duffle bag on the
other. Her feet are resting on another bag. Our trunck is packed with
all the snacks, water and juice. After a long morning of "helping" us
pack Caroline is tuckered out!!

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