Where to begin...

Well, since Savannah's birthday (and the last post), my Dad came to visit, Greg went to Florida, Micah re-visited the ER and Savannah's new favorite song is "If You're Happy and You Know It" and our computer had to be reset to it's factory settings (which basically means we lost all software we loaded and any pics or docs we've saved since we bought it last Nov. Fun, fun ,fun.)

SO - I'll start with the ER visit - The morning after Greg left for a five day trip to FL, Micah was dancing around (or something) on the kitchen floor and tripped over his PJ pants. I heard him fall and then heard him scream, but honestly, I was thinking he just knocked his knee and was overreacting a bit. I went over to hold him on the couch and looked down only to see lots of blood on my shoulder. Wow. OK, so what's bleeding? His right ear. Immediately I knew he would need stitches. SO...after calling my pediatrician and throwing on the nearest pair of jeans on my floor we were off to the ER downtown. Thankfully my dear friend Sarah lives only a couple minutes from the hospital and she was able to take Savannah for the morning. Anyway, I'll spare you all the details of the hospital visit, but in short, our Peds ER is awesome and three stitches later we were off and enjoying a happy meal at McDonald's. They gave me a stitch-removal kit, so Greg and I were able to take them out last weekend at the house, which saved us another trip to the doctor and another bill :) He's doing great and it looks like his ear is healing up just fine. He'll probably have a scar for awhile, but we are just so thankful that it was his ear and not his eye or head. God is good.

There is much more I would like to include at this point about funny things he's said or cute things Savannah's done, but I will have to report all these to you in another post. Like I said, we're down to one computer while we're getting the other one up and running and Greg needs to do a bit of work on this one before tomorrow...

SO, love to you all and happy Palm Sunday :)

The big O-N-E

Our little girl turned one. I simply can't believe how fast this year flew by. It seems I was just hobbling around recovering from a c-section and swaddling that precious punkin...and now she's crawling full force ahead into toddlerdom. She's just the cutest thing :)

We didn't do much for her birthday...just cake and balloons and presents with the four of us. When we gave her, her cake she had this incredulous look on her face like, "Are you for real? You're REALLY going to let me have this? wow. OK...I still don't believe you, but this is going to be amazing..." And she LOVED it. Once again showing how very different our two offspring are. Micah didn't even want to touch it. She dug right in and giggled and squealed her way through every bite. And then she got a sugar rush...hilarious. Micah gave her a big pink ball and she was all over the place with it. It was a fun, high energy, chaotic evening...perfect for a one year old.

Some of her latest tricks are:
*looking at me, then crawling as fast as she can for the bathroom, pulling up on the toilet and putting her hands in the water...disGUSTing.

*pretending to brush her hair with her baby hair brush

*holding onto the same toy for an hour or so and crawling with it all around the house (seriously...I had to steal a toy from the church a few Sundays ago b/c she wouldn't let go. I returned it, though, in case you're thinking of turning me in.)

*she likes to dance to music or with you - esp. in her high chair.

*putting all kinds of random, small things in her mouth - I have GOT to keep my floor more clean!

*she's not as much into books as her brother was, nor is she into trying to say words or communicate...she's rather just explore and play.

*she goes to bed GREAT. Thank you, Lord.

*she's serious about her pacifier and her juice cup.

And a couple things Micah has said recently:
-"Mom, you rock the house."

-Today I asked him if he wanted a snack and he says, "Well, first I need to go pee pee and then we can talk about it later."
- To his buddy next door, "Ethan, your baby sister is just adorable."

Birthdays, Anniversaries and Disney on Ice

Strike a pose...there's nothing to it - vogue.

"Knock, knock"..."who's there?"..."Ima"..."Ima who?"..."Ima big boy laughing at this joke."

"SURPRISE!!!"

"Greg sitting on his first elevated toilet seat (No, I didn't get it for him.)

"Hey, Mickey!"

"On our Disney date"

February ended with a bang and March, no doubt, will follow in suite. Greg turned the big 4-0 and we had a fun surprise party to celebrate him :) Micah and I had a hot date to Disney on Ice with my friend Sarah and her son. LOVED it. Next week Savannah will turn ONE (ah!) and Greg and I complete year number 5 of marital bliss.

Here are a couple shots to show you what's been going on...

Strike!

The Duvall Bowling Extravaganza Results:

Greg: 111

Shawna: 78

Micah: 68 (with bumper handicap)

We took Micah bowling for the first time today. Even though it took five minutes (or though it seemed) for his ball to roll down the lane, he was thrilled with however many pins received the wrath of his 6 lb. ball.

Savannah watched from the side lines in the comfort of her stroller.

Greg smoked me with his bowling prowess. He gets the ole' "one leg behind the other" bowler's stance. I flail.

We had a great - and relaxing - Valentines Day. Greg had to go to the church early this morning to help set-up for services, but was home by 10:15. We then headed to our favorite diner (The Red Geranium) for brunch...YUM. Don't you just love a cup of coffee in one of those thick, off-white diner mugs? Usually with a chip or two on the handle or rim? It's so much better than drinking it out of a paper cup with a plasic lid...and you get hot refills! I love it.

We had the usual. California omelette (avocado, cream cheese, tomato, sprouts - hello?! Omelette bliss.) with the triple stack blueberry pancakes. Feeds the whole fam with leftovers :)

A fun added blessing was running into a friend from the other side of town there. Her hubby was out of town, so she and her two girls sat with us at our table.

With full tummies, we headed to the bowling alley, then back home for Savannah to nap and Micah to "rest". Micah and Greg (well, Greg) shoveled the driveway, then we all sipped hot chocolate while Greg started a fire in our fireplace. Micah watched his "Boz" video (a big green bear) while Savannah crawled around and put things in her mouth she shouldn't be putting in her mouth.

Leftovers for dinner, baths, then kiddos in bed. It's 7:52 and it's Greg and Shawna time :)

Just wanted to say "Happy Valentines Day" and WE LOVE YOU!!

The Hand

Here's a shot from my birthday - Micah and Greg decorated the cake. I also got a fire truck balloon and an elephant and flower made out of modeling clay :)

So we've been going through the developmental stage with Micah where he is testing the waters with the whole "lying" bit. We're seeing progress, however, here is an example of what happened the other day:

Mommy: Ouch! Micah, did you just hit Mommy on the bottom with a hanger?

Micah: (holding a plastic baby hanger in his hand) No. I didn't.

Mommy: Micah, are you telling me the truth? Did you hit me with a hanger?

Micah: No.

Mommy: Well, Micah, then who hit me?

Micah: Savannah did.

Mommy: Micah, how did Savannah hit me with a hanger when I was right here with her, holding her on the changing table?

Micah: Well Savannah did it because she has a really big hand and she came around and she hit you like this - whack.

Mommy: Micah, you need to go to your room...now.

Disclaimer for Micah: He actually didn't hit me on purpose the first time - he was just being to wild and waving the hanger around.

One Small Step for Savannah, One Giant Step for the Duvall Family

Savannah's first few steps by herself with the walker...our little girl is growing up before our very eyes :)

Still no ground

We haven't seen the ground in weeks, but somehow, I'm OK with that...I think the snow is beautiful. Micah and I got out yesterday for a few minutes while Savannah napped and we built a snow fort. Well, I built a snow fort and Micah added much too emphatically, "Mom, it's not big enough." Well, you know, Micah, some kids in Africa don't have any snow forts at all.

Today it actually reached 35 or so and you would have thought it was spring. Apparently I am not the only one who had the bright idea of washing all the grime off our vehicles while it was warm enough not to freeze the water right away. There was a line of about eight cars at the car wash...Yes, we do have more than one car wash, but it's Sunday. So all other car washes are closed b/c it is a sin to wash your car on Sunday in West Michigan. And to mow your lawn. And drink alcohol. (OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. But a lot of things really are closed here on Sundays...and we don't even have a Chick-Fil-A. And- just so it doesn't seem like I'm slammin' GR - we really do love living here. The people we've met have richly blessed our lives.) ***Ooooh*** I just got clobbered by my ecstatic husband b/c the red team in the Super Bowl just sacked the quarterback in the yellow pants. And wow...He has a very long last name. I'm just here for the companionship and commercials :)

And yes, for those of you who check this blog for pics and updates of the kiddos...they're doing pretty well :) Savannah is trying to get over a cold that just won't give up. She probably has nightmares of Mommy coming after her with a rag to wipe her nose. She's still her cute little self, though. Now she's starting to "talk" and do what I call the happy dance. She rocks back and forth while smiling and saying "wawawawawa". ADORable. :)

Micah is doing great. We signed him up for preschool in the Fall. His new thing is to say, "It's not fair" over anything he disagrees with. Isn't that supposed to come much later...like in pre-adolescence? Oh dear.

I just finished the Kent County Library's One Book, One County read...It was "The Highest Tide" by Jim Lynch. It takes place in WA on the Puget Sound, which was very cool since that's where my dad lives. A little on the crass side for me at points in the book, but overall very entertaining. I totally got into all the marine biology trivia.

OK - the ball is right next to the end zone. I should sign off before I get clobbered again :)

Our little Michigander

I tease Greg because while I most certainly have the heavier Michigan "twang", he has been known to frequently answer, "You betcha!" (the common form of "No problem!" up here)
Well, today, here's what I overheard in the kitchen:
Greg: "Hey buddy (Micah), will you bring your plate in here to me?"
Micah: "You betcha!"

Here's another little conversation I had with him just a day or two ago:
Mommy: "Wow, Micah! You're making me play-doh carrot soup!"
Micah: "Yep. It has carrots and broccoli in it and I always put broccoli in my carrot soup." (Thinking to myself: 'Broccoli? You hate broccoli! And isn't this the first time you've ever made play-doh carrot soup?')
Mommy: "Oh, I can't wait to eat it! Are you going to eat some, too?"
Micah: "No. I'm the one who cooks it and you are the woman who eats it."

From deep within the cave...

Happy girl :)

This is Savannah's designated spot...right next to her favorite person on earth while he takes
F-O-R-E-V-E-R to finish eating. She just stands there and watches him...too cute.

The title of this post is referring to the colder-than-necessary weather we are experiencing up here. Seriously, can we say, "Mongolia"? I'm having very real flashbacks. We've been little hermits in our 68 degree winter cave while the winds howl outside. Other than that, not much new to report around here...Savannah is movin' and groovin'. I think she's teething because she's been a bit high maintenance (in my opinion.) It was a lot easier when she just sat there but didn't crawl or pull up on things :) The big talk around the house these days is signing up Micah for preschool next year...ah! That one definitely hit me blind sighted. Had NO idea I need to enroll in January and February for the '09-'10 school year. Anyway...took him to a little preschool open house the other night and his exact words were, "Mom, I love this school." That's just because it had a big sand table complete with dump trucks and bulldozers. We'll see where the Lord leads. The little guy is growin' up on us :)

Savannah Smiles

Here's a cute video of Savannah laughing at Greg wearing a Santa hat :)

November and December 2008

Micah's Christmas loot.

The tenth reindeer ready for Santa's sleigh

After Christmas Eve service

Brrrr...two snow bunnies going on a sled ride outside our house the week before Christmas

Meemaw and Savannah at Children's Museum in GR

Great Meemaw with kids in Dallas

Mimi and Savannah saying goodbye at DFW

Micah on the lookout

Daddy and Savannah on my Dad's deck in Gig Harbor

In November and early December we were able to spend some wonderful quality time with our families. We flew out to WA to see Ha and Gamma, then to Dallas to see Mimi, Papa and Great Meemaw. Then, a few days after we got back to GR, Greg's Mom, brother Steve and niece Melanie came up for a chilly, but very fun visit. Christmas, then, was just the four of us...as quiet as "quiet" can be around here, and very relaxed and meaningful. We loved it. Here are some fun pics of the kids. I'll also post a bunch on snapfish.com for those of you who would like to peruse the whole bundle. As far a pics from my dad's in Washington...I will shamelessly direct you to the much superior blog of Jonathan and Chrissy at http://www.jonathanandchrissy.blogspot.com/. He's got a link to some really great photos of our trip on there you won't want to miss.

Finally, here are a couple Micahisms for you.

"Mom, you like making cookies with me? Yeah, me too. I like eating cookies."

"Dad, can I watch my 'ratoons'?" (ratoons = cartoons)

"Hey, Mom, I think this is a good idea, 'dontcha fink'?" (dontcha fink = don't you think)

"Hey honey" (in referring to Savannah)

"Dre" (we have no idea where this is from, but for months now, this is how he answers for "I don't know.")

Mommyism:
"Micah, let's not put wrapping paper in the garlic press."

And...a recent conversation:

Micah: "Poo poo!"
Mommy: "Micah, did you say 'poo poo'? You need to go sit in time out."
Micah: "But, Mom, 'poo poo' is how you say 'Ethan' in Spanish!" (Ethan is our neighbor)

Mommy (trying not to laugh): "No, Micah, 'poo poo' is not how we say 'Ethan' in Spanish.
Micah: "Yes it is."

Mommy: "No, honey, it's not."
Micah: "Then how do you say 'Ethan' in Spanish?"

Mommy: "I don't know...maybe 'Etano'???

Micah: "oh."