weekend in Traverse City

We got to spend last weekend in Traverse City with our friends, Brian and Jill and their little man, Lincoln.  He will soon be joined by baby boy Hammer in about a month and we can't wait! Any time our families get to hang out, it is wonderful.  It's therapeutic for me to see another family in the same life stage as us and to see that we're not all crazy! We had great food, conversation and lots of fun together.

It also helps that our little ones are sort of in love with each other.  We took a walk Saturday morning and Lincoln drove Kate around in his blue car.

can't you tell, we're having fun!

After not falling asleep until 11:00 pm Friday night (she does not transfer from the car to the pack n play!), Kate was absolutely not about taking a nap on Saturday afternoon either, so after fighting her for almost an hour, my last resort was to drive her around and hope she fell asleep in the car.  She did take a catnap in the car and I got to drive out to the end of the peninsula and see a lot of beautiful homes, orchards and wineries along the way.  After naps, we went into downtown and walked around for a while, in and out of different shops.

Both munchkins needed baths Saturday night, so they took one together.  Does it get any cuter than this? Seriously?

Lincoln is recovering from Kate's maniacal splashing

sharing toys:)

hugs!

"dude, why are you drinking the bath water?"

Saturday night we spent a long time planning our upcoming vacation to Hilton Head, and made the crazy decision to fly instead of drive down.  Actually driving was probably much more crazy.  We are really excited.  Is it May yet?

these two played a little hide and seek after church on Sunday

lots of hugs... 

...and kisses

As you can see, they are in love.  No, but really, they played super well together which makes us really excited for our trip so these two can play some more, we can meet the newest little Hammer man, and we can spend a whole week together.  Thanks, Hammers, for a great weekend!

what we've been up to lately...

Some days you just need to get outside and take a walk, even when it's cold, so we bundled up and went for a wagon ride.  Of course, Kate's babies had to come along too:)

We went back to Frederick Meijer Gardens with our friends Allison and Haven and had a lot of fun.  I think it's great that new butterflies are always hatching and you get to see different ones when you go at different times.

mesmerized by the waterfall

loving her friend:)

After sleeping for almost 3 hours one Friday afternoon, my mom and I found Kate like this in her crib...

little pretzel baby

And here we are playing peek-a-boo at lunch.  Kate likes to cover up her eyes and then 'surprise' me...she's so funny.

SMILE, it's Saturday

Last weekend was Matt's 'golden weekend', meaning he didn't work Saturday or Sunday.  We wanted to take advantage of our time together, so we filled the weekend right up.  We started out with breakfast at Rainbow Grill Saturday morning.  Matt pretty much fell in love with me there, so we thought it would be fun to go back:)

yay for Saturday morning coffee:)

She's already a multi-tasker!

SMILE

After breakfast, Kate and I met my friend Sarah at a mom sale.  Then we headed home for lunch and a nap.  I went for a run during Kate's nap, and once she woke up, we went to my parent's house because Adam was home! We celebrated my mom's and my birthdays with dinner at Rush Creek Bistro.  Kate was hamming it up the entire time.  She will smile on demand now, but it's the super cheesy, nose scrunched up, eyes close smile...I love it!

SMILE!

butterflies

We have a membership to Frederick Meijer Gardens and their annual butterfly exhibit started last weekend.  My mom and I took Kate on Friday morning and it was so fun! We saw so many beautiful creatures and Kate loved running around.  She even looked at a few butterflies:)

Honda family

The Pridgeons have been a Honda family for quite some time.  For the past few years, we've been driving a 1996 Civic and a 2001 Accord.  This has been a pretty rough winter in Grand Rapids, and Matt's car was starting to suffer a little bit.  The poor thing had almost 220,000 miles on it and could barely make it up the hill on Michigan Street (which is how he gets to the hospital).  It was also a 2-door, so we never took Kate anywhere it it.  But, it got fantastic gas mileage and was a great car for our family for a long time.  That time recently came to an end.

Bye, Bye Civic!

the dealer sure shined her up and made her pretty!

Hello CRV!

So far, we are loving our new car, and we even fight over who gets to drive it:) Getting Kate in and out of her car seat is suddenly easier, and I do feel a little safer in the CRV.  It's handled really well in the snow, too (thanks 4WD!).  The extra space will be really nice as our family grows and especially when we go on trips.  With the Accord and the CRV, we're feeling pretty spoiled in the car department right now.

Oh, and our Civic sold in less than a week! Hopefully it's new owners love it as much as we did.

finger painting!

Last Wednesday we had a big snow/ice storm in GR and our weekly Bible study was cancelled.  Kate and I had an unexpected morning at home, so we busted out her new finger paints for some art fun.

Here are her masterpieces:)