Vandervaart Family: November 2010

Bun in the Oven...

We are pleased to announce that we are expecting our third child in June!!

We saw our newest, smallest addition via ultrasound yesterday with a wonderful looking heartbeat!

Our Halloween costume...

Grace in her "Middle Child" t-shirt

Middle Child and Oldest T-Shirts

Greedy Trick or Treater

Claire did such a great job trick-or-treating but she had quite a method...as the homeowner would put something in her bag, she would reach into the bowl and grab more :)

Claire "Scaring" Uncle Keith

Here is Claire buzzing over to scare Uncle Keith... I think his enthusiastic reaction triggers Claire's clumsiness...

Claire Practicing for Halloween

Here is Claire practicing what to say on Halloween night

Sharing

Here is Claire sharing her sucker with Grace... briefly :)

Swinging

Little dare devil, Claire loves to be spun around and around...

For Halloween, Claire and Grace were both bumble bees. It was amazing to see how well Claire did by saying "Trick or Treat" and then saying "Thank you, Happy Halloween!" It wasn't tough to get her costume on because all we had to tell her was that she could wear her black "Tap" shoes and she would get candy :)

I was on the ground taking these pictures while Pete made the bumble bees "fly"

Trust me... it looks WAY more dangerous than it was - all about camera angle! :)

Grace trick or treating at my parent's house

Family photo at ZooBoo

"Can you believe mom and dad did this to us?"

Jackson (basketball hoop), Claire (bumble bee), and Jude (Super Jude)

October 2010

October was a wonderful month for the Vandervaart family. The month included "Light the Night" - a walk to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a visit from Pete's parents and sisters, a couple of trips to the Children's Museum, a visit to the zoo for ZooBoo, and a couple of visits from my sister, Beth. We spent an evening at the Getty's house and another evening with the Syrek family. We went to the pumpkin patch and I took the girls to the Covered Bridge Festival with some family and friends. On October 8th I got certified to teach Zumba classes and my first session is this Wednesday! I am really excited!

Claire is maturing by the minute it seems - she is getting a little less clumsy and continues to climb things like a monkey. She has the best imagination I know... She will all of a sudden say "Shh... a dinosaur is coming!" and then I will follow her wherever she goes and then she will say "Whew, that was close!" She continues to be a bit of a picky eater but her favorite food is a bagel with cream cheese! She sings her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, and some songs off of Dora and Fresh Beat Band. She is such a joy to watch - plain and simple :)

Grace is SO close to walking. She cruises along furniture and loves to walk with her walking toy. Yesterday when we were getting her pictures taken she actually took her first step on her own and we were able to catch an action shot photo of it! (For a scrapbooker like myself, this is a big deal!) She loves to say "mama" even though I don't think she knows that's me. She is a bottomless pit and will eat anything in front of her. She is like her sister and loves when Pete horses around with her. She, too, is such a delight to watch grow.