Going...to see the Butterflies!

It was so nice to have some time at home over spring break! Ellie and I had two fun outings to see the butterflies at the Meijer Gardens. Now that I have a membership again, I love meeting there with friends. In March and April the main conservatory releases hundreds of butterflies and we had a great time seeing them!

Some of my dear friends from small group! Here is Melissa and her two girls, Dylann and Rylee, with Mary with her niece, Linda.

The girls had a fun time chasing around the butterflies and taking pictures!

I think Ellie liked it. She wore her butterfly outfit that day!

Later in the week we met Liz and Violet at the gardens!

We also had fun meeting up with Laurie and Levi there back in March, and also with my mom! I look forward to going in the summer to see the new exhibits and exploring the gardens! Let me know if you would like to join us!

What's in the Basket?

Recently, Ellie has been more curious than ever. She wants to touch, grab, and taste anything she sees. This especially applies to anyone's hair, electronic gadgets, and our eating utensils! She will tell you if she is mad about anything being taken away!

Ellie loves to sit up on her changing table and reach into her basket and pull out diapers. This gave me the idea to put her toy basket on the floor so she could do a similar thing. This entertained her for a little while, and I was surprised when I noticed that she had started to read her Giggle Baby book! It was adorable!

That same day, I had Ellie on our bed as I was folding laundry. I had her Ellie the Elephant toy for her to play with, but she had more fun playing with the hangers and looking into the basket. Eventually, she got the idea that she could pull clothes out of the basket! Thank you, Elizabeth, for helping Mommy with the laundry!

Ellie's Easter in Pictures

Daffodils bloomed in our backyard!

An Easter basket from Grandma and Papa Snyder in Findlay, Ohio. I can't wait until we can tell Ellie all about the real meaning of Easter!



Having fun on the deck in Plymouth. Ellie loved wearing Paul's sunglasses, but didn't participate in the "big kids" game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey (Nicklas was the winner)!




Cousins Peter, Carolyn, and Ellie hanging out. It was so funny to watch Peter and Ellie interacting!


"What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all—life healed and whole."
-1 Peter 1:3-5, The Message

The Tigers are Back!

After a long off-season, the Tiger's are back! We look forward to the first regular season game next Tuesday! We also look forward to going to a game in April. We have been preparing here in GR!

Matt's Grandparents returned from Florida and brought back a few posters they got for free while they attended a spring training game. They offered them to us thinking that we would be interested in them. Papa joked that perhaps we could put them in Ellie's room (sure, probably the basement I thought).

Later that night, Matt was not afraid to post them on the back of Ellie's door. This is the one place in her green and pink nursery I was willing to settle for posters! Now, Ellie can learn the players as she looks out from her crib! Well, maybe it will take a few years for that.


Matt has been having fun picking out Tiger's items for Elizabeth. A set of onesies and a hat from Lids makes her ready for the season! Let's just hope that she can wear them in October for Playoffs!

This is a video of Ellie in her first baseball hat. She has recently been doing a new "crinkly" nose smile and we love it!

Going...to Chipotle!

Our favorite "fast food" restaurant is Chipotle. As a former QDoba fan, I first hesitated to believe our friend Mark Volle when he told us that Chipotle was "so much better!" See, Chipotle started in Mark's home state of Colorado, and when he came to GR, he told us about this Mexican burrito place (like QDoba, but "so much better"). He liked it so much that for his birthday, the guys of the Observatory house drove 40 miles for the closest Chipotle.

We wondered for a while why GR didn't have a Chipotle. Ann Arbor, Lansing, even Matt's parent's town of Findlay, OH. has one. We finally celebrated the Grand Opening of the Grand Rapids location last Winter. Included was a free burrito and tee-shirt (worth the 45 minute wait in the cold)! We were thrilled that there was now a Chipotle just two miles from our house!

It seems that in the past few years Chipotle has been getting more popular. It was featured on Oprah, and even some of Matt's co-workers have switched their loyalty from "Moe's" burrito for Chipotle's.

I appreciate that the company strives for good stewardship of resources, from their building materials to local produce to hormone free meats. It is encouraging to know that this "fast food" chain is showing our culture that we can have great food done well at good prices all with environmentally conscious motives: "Food with Integrity".

The best part of going to Chipotle is having a good time with friends. This last weekend, we went with Catherine and Aaron and had a laugh while Ellie was enjoying herself in her "big girl" high chair. She loved playing with the straws and napkins! What could be better than time with friends and a delicious chicken fajita burrito?

Spring in Ellie's Terms

According to Ellie, spring is great! She loves the sunshine and the boosted mood of her Mom and Dad. She loves riding in her jogging stroller and looking at the trees and birds. She even saw daffodils coming up today! She likes not having to be bundled up in lots of layers in her car seat. She likes seeing the butterflies at the Meijer Gardens. She can't wait to play outside more!

March Madness

This month started with a record streak of sunny days (more in a row than we had in all of 2009)! It created the long awaited wonderful feeling of knowing that winter is almost over. The snow is gone and we are back to looking at brownish grass and our entire mailbox again. We took our first walk outside since December and even started up jogging again.

We are thankful that Elizabeth has been healthy and is growing strong. She is now seven months old, and is quite confident of grabbing anything in her sight or rolling until some form of furniture stops her. She eats 2-3 meals a day of baby food and loves her banana puffs. She recently discovered the fun of making a spitting sound with her lips. We watch in awe everyday of her curiosity of everything around her. We no longer can have her sit on our lap at the table, or plates and food would be all over us! She continues to makes us laugh and this is a recent video of her in amusement!

As we continue on in March, we look forward to more sunny days, preparing for the Calvin Spring Classic, and, of course, winning our tournament brackets.