Beach and Bath Time Fun

My Cup Runneth Over

Yesterday the four of us went back up to Holland for a day away. It was great to be out of town, only if it was an hour away. After lunch we stopped at JP's for a cup of coffee. While waiting in line, an older gentleman stopped me to ask how old Millie is. I told him just six weeks. He then told me he had just been to the hospital to visit his newborn great-grandson. His sixth! He told me when he thinks of his babies, "his cup runneth over." Exactly what I was thinking.

Dutch Baby

I just love Tulip Time in Holland. My mom, the girls and I went up last week to see the tulips and the dutch dancers (well and let's be honest, to shop). Madeline once again wore one of my old dutch costumes. Doesn't she look cute? Millie was passed out in the stroller all day and missed most of her first Tulip Time. There is always next year!

Sisters

I didn't grow up with sisters. As many of you know, I have two brothers. I love my brothers A LOT, but I am so excited for Madeline to have a sister. My prayer is that they are best friends and lean on each other in times of need.

Madeline already loves Millie. She loves to hold her, kiss her and help me give her a bath. She is the perfect age to do all these things and more. I wanted this baby a lot sooner, but am grateful for the age difference between them. I think it's perfect. I guess God knows what he's doing after all.

Millicent Grace Chappa

On April 2nd, I was laying in bed listening to Todd snore. I flung my leg over to kick him and my water finally broke! I was thrilled to know that I was going into labor. We called my mom, she came over to stay with Madeline and we drove to the hospital. At 12:30pm that day, our sweet Millicent Grace was born. We like to call her Millie, or Millie Bean for fun. She was 7lbs 15oz of perfection. The delivery went smooth and was much shorter in comparison to Madeline's. We are once again head-over-heels in love. The love you feel for your child is hard to describe and we feel that kind of love everyday for our two sweet girls.

"As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." 1 Samuel 1:26-28

Get Away

We were able to go on a little get away to Hawaii for the weekend...ha ha, just kidding! We went up to the Great Wolf Lodge, a close second to Hawaii, for the weekend to get out of the cold! Madeline had a blast sliding down the slides, splashing and swimming. She wore herself out completely! Todd had a good time chasing after her and I waddled around in my large bathing suit. :) It was good to get away, even for one night, to be somewhere different and have a change of scenery.

Madeline on the slide--"I do it myself!"

Shooting the water gun!

Toddler pool---so much to do, so little time!

Here is my sweet girl looking all grown up in her pigtails. She has some great new sayings these days!

My dad walked in the door the other day and Madeline asked "whobody else?" is coming in!!

She was hanging on to my credit cards and said, "mommy these are your credit cards and they say Mommy Danielle on them" She recently learned my name and says it so funny!

We are SO EXCITED it is almost spring! 4 more weeks until the baby comes and it has been sunny the last 3 days here---things that make me smile!

Balmy Musings

It is a balmy day here in West Michigan...a whole 50 degrees! I can hardly believe it! It's January 24th and 50 degrees. I think God finally got tired of my complaining of the weather. This winter has been long, especially after the holidays. I suppose I am prone to thinking so since I am also on the countdown to the arrival of our sweet Millie. I knew this part of the journey would be long, the last months of pregnancy always are and then add 6 inches of snow and clouds onto that.

I am grateful for the sun and warms temps though today and, after Madeline's nap, we will be going out for a walk! Fresh air somehow always makes things better. I even snuck open the kitchen window for about an hour just to let some in.

Somehow this time of year always makes me feel so mundane, like life is really boring. I know in a couple months life will be crazy and the sunshine will be out everyday, but things seem so stagnant right now. So, I have been trying to soak up all the "normal" things that happen and be grateful for those, especially knowing this is the last alone time I will have with Madeline. I am so thankful that my life isn't chaos, especially when I relfect on all that has happened in Haiti and am lucky that I can focus on boring tasks instead of life-saving measures.

Hope this post finds everyone well and "boring" as well :)