One Year Pictures

I just had Arianna's one year pictures taken. You can view the proofs by going to http://tinavinkportraits.smugmug.com and clicking on Arianna. Let me know which ones you like best!

Just too cute..

I had to post this. When Arianna was born, my Aunt gave us this dog as a baby gift. It's kind of a tradition with her. Over the last few weeks Arianna has grown very attached to this large dog. His name is Lloyd. She carries him around, gives him hugs and kisses and it's just darn cute. Here is a short video of her with Lloyd. Oh, and yes she attacks me at the end, that's why there aren't many videos of her as of late, she loves the camera and ALWAYS wants to hold it herself.

Birthday Party -- She's ONE!!

I cannot believe how time flies. Arianna turned one on December 27th. It was a sad and exciting day at our household. Our baby is no longer a baby. She's walking, "talking", understanding and she's independent. It's such a blessing to watch her grow and develop, and yet it's so sad to see her grow (moms will understand what I mean by that!) Anyway, we were planning on having her birthday party on her birthday, but my entire family had the stomach flu. Yes, four of the six cousins, Uncle Drew, Grandma, Grandpa and Daddy all had the flu, so we postponed the party. We had her birthday party December 30th instead. She really didn't know the difference :) It was so fun. Everyone came over and we had BBQ and cake. Arianna wasn't nuts about either one, but everyone else loved the food. Here are some pictures.








Finally, here is a video of us singing "Happy Birthday" to Arianna. Please, pay no attention to my family's singing...we try.

Christmas Fun

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! Things just got crazy! I know, that's no excuse, but I'm using it! Our Christmas break has been wonderful so far. It started out with Jason's family visiting and we had so much fun. Arianna loved playing with Uncle Joel, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Jill and her cousins. She also loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa Nikkel again. While the Nikkels' were visiting we also celebrated Arianna's first birthday. Here are a few pictures of Arianna with the Nikkels at Christmas.

After the Nikkel party, we celebrated Christmas with my family! It was party after party! Arianna did great, but she did get a little overwhelmed by all the activity. She loved playing with her "crazy" cousins and trying really hard to keep up with all the big kids. Don't worry, she can hold her own! My parents even attempted their picture tradition of having their picture taken in front of the tree with all the grandkids. It wasn't too bad...I'm sure to an outsider the scene would have been funny. All of us adults trying to get our kids to look, shouting names, making things rattle, making funny faces...all for the sake of a cute picture, but I think we got one! Here are some photos of my family Christmas.

Just waiting for Christmas

Hello! Jason and I are both counting down the days until Christmas break. We are both so excited this year. More than in years past because we get to spend all day with our little family! It seems like life has been so hectic over the last few months that we hardly have seen each other! Now, we'll have two weeks of just hanging out. I know that there will be basketball practices, and parties, but at least we'll be off work and just relaxing. Other than that, nothing really new has happened in our lives. We survived the first ice storm and we both STILL HAD SCHOOL! That's what teachers live for...snow days. Alas, no such luck this time. Arianna is doing wonderfully. She is getting two more teeth on top so she's a little cranky at times, but mostly she's great. She loves to laugh, smile, wave, blow kisses, and mimic all of our motions. She is full of wonder and curiosity. It's so much fun just watching her. I'm posting several pictures of her at daycare. We are so blessed to have someone who loves Arianna watching her while we're both at work. God works in amazing ways doesn't He? I was a wreck going back to work and now my heart is at peace because I know Arianna is getting great care. The first two pictures show just how hard Arianna plays at daycare. Yes, she's actually sleeping like that. Don't worry, after the photos, she was moved to a more comfortable position!

This final picture is of Arianna with some of the kids at daycare all sporting the cool new "hats" they made (Arianna had help making hers!)

It's been crazy!

Sorry I haven't written in a while or posted anything. Life has been crazy. I just finished with my musical production (which went very well) and then we had Thanksgiving. And remember when Arianna was so sick, well, guess who got sick next, ME! So, once again, sorry. Here is what is going on with the Nikkel family. Our Thanksgiving was so wonderful. We had dinner with my family and then on Friday my mom and I and my sister were with all the other crazy people shopping. It was so fun. Then, on Friday afternoon, we went with my family to a local tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. It was FREEZING! But, a tradition is a tradition! Arianna loved riding in the backpack and looking at all the trees. And of course, she loved being with her cousins. You can see our family photo and also the one with Claire, her and Arianna love to be by each other. :)

Now we have a few videos. The first one is Arianna eating her table food. She's just starting to get the hang of "real" food. She doesn't always like what goes in her mouth...

The next video is Arianna playing her FAVORITE new game, peek-a-boo with daddy while he chases her. She loves Jason so much and has really turned into a daddy's girl. She cries when he leaves! She loves it when he chases her around and then scares her, you can hear her laughing with delight. This video just makes me smile and reminds me how blessed I am. Hopefully, her laughter brings a smile to your face too.

PTL!

Thank God for modern medicine. After two full days of antibiotics, Arianna is feeling like her old self again. She finally slept through the night last night...first time since Friday. It was a beautiful thing. She's still on medication, but she's MUCH better. Thank you for all of your prayers and concern!

So sad...

Arianna is sick, again! She has a double ear infection, eye infection, throat infection AND sinus infection. I swear, when this girl gets sick, she gets sick. She's been pretty miserable all weekend and still not herself. Anyway, the upcoming few weeks are super busy for Jason and I. I have musical tech rehearsals and Jason is starting basketball try-outs. So, please pray that Arianna gets better soon! We have lots of babysitters coming... hope you're all doing well.

Trick or Treat...

Here are some cute photos of Arianna as a kitty. The first one is of her "finding" the candy dish. Her favorite part of Halloween was dumping all the candy out of the bowl. She thought that was so much fun!

Arianna also led her cousin, Claire, astray. Once Claire saw all the fun Arianna was having dumping out the candy, she thought it looked fun too!

Here is Arianna and me. We were hanging out outside waiting for trick-or-treaters...she liked to talk to all the big kids.

Finally, what you've all been waiting for! Arianna has taken her first steps. Actually, she's been walking for a few weeks. Well, I guess walking isn't what you would exactly call it...wobbling on her feet from place to place is a better description. Here she is...

When life hands you lemons...

So, this week has been another busy week. We have parent teacher conferences this week. So, last night my conferences were from 4pm-8:30pm. When they were FINALLY done, I walked out to my car only to find it dead. So, a few of the teachers from school tried to jump it, but that didn't work. I called Jason, who called my brother, who came over to sit at our house while Jason drove the 35 minutes out to my work at 9:15pm. When he finally arrived at 9:50pm we called my dad who gave us one more suggestion and it worked. The car started. Jason and I then made the long trek home. Now, I guess we could all look at that situation like it seriously sucked. What horrible timing and WHY DID THAT HAVE TO HAPPEN? But, I think God wants us to always find good in life so this is how I'm thinking of it...thank God for two very kind co-workers who were willing to sit with me and try new things to get my car started, even though they were very tired and very cold. Thank God for a kind brother who was willing to come and sit at our house while my husband had to come and rescue me. Thank God for a dad who can fix a car, over the phone. Finally, thank God for a husband who was willing to drive all the way to my work, at night, exhausted, and not say a word when the car started one minute after he arrived. See, there' s always lemonade when there's lemons. Have a good day!

Mixing it up...

So, I'm trying a new template...let me know what you think!

Football Girl

Here are some photos of Arianna "bonding" with daddy and his greatest love (besides his girls of course)....FOOTBALL! The first picture is of Arianna getting ready to go to Unity's football game on Friday night. They don't make actual UC sweatshirts small enough for her, so me being the crafty person I am (hehe) decided to make one! I think it turned out pretty cute!

This next photo is of Arianna and daddy watching football. Yes, she's actually watching the game on TV. Of course, it was of the Hawks winning so everyone is happy!

Finally, the last photo is of Arianna wearing an actual Hawks football jersey. It was given to us as a Christmas gift last year before she was born. It came with football pants, but she looked a little too much like a boy in the whole outfit. Jason really wanted her to be a Hawk football player for Halloween, but I had to draw the line...seriously? A football player for Halloween? She's way too cute for that. So, she's going to be a kitty in memory of our two cats...I"ll post pics when I get the outfit.

And at last...a video. It captures her waving, kind of. It's as good as it's going to get. Hope you're all doing great. Every day we are reminded how blessed we are with Arianna and it is my hope that you are reminded daily of the blessings God has given all of us!

Just some thoughts...

This weekend was super fun. We got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Nikkel (and Jocelyn)! It was so good to see everyone. Arianna loved seeing her grandparents and cousin again. We met in Michigan City (which also gave us a good opportunity to do some shopping!) and went for dinner. It was so much fun. The weather here in Michigan is great, but it feels like July. It's supposed to be 90 today and as much as I love hot weather it's a little too hot for school. Thankfully it's supposed to cool down this week! Arianna is still growing and loving life. She just had her 9 month check up and she weighs 20 lbs and is 28 inches long. 70th percentile for both. Hope you're all doing well!

Very busy...

So, I think I'll get all my bases covered with this one post. Things are still going pretty well. We're still super busy, but it's starting to feel like routine. Arianna is beautiful, as always. She is just pure joy. We love being parents. I've attached some new pictures and a video. The first picture is of Arianna playing in the grass. We tried to get her to look up (it was going to be her 9 month picture) but she really just loved playing with the grass...

The next picture is of Arianna in the bath. She LOVES taking baths and I think she looks like the Gerber Baby in this one. It's the Gerber Baby Shampoo that's making her hair stand on end!

Next is the video. This is the true girl in Arianna. She is a HUGE drama queen. She saw me taking video and wanted the camera. I wouldn't give it to her, so obviously, she threw a fit. Is that bad...seeing as she's only 9 months?!

So sorry

I know everyone has been looking for more video and pictures, but honestly, I just found the camera in one of our MANY boxes still unpacked. Seriously, it's like we just moved. The new carpet is beautiful, we miss our cats :( but life is good. We are still unpacking all of our junk (most of it is still in the guest bath!) so, as soon as I can recharge the camera, I'll take some more video and pictures and post them, I promise! Good health to all and God bless!

Trying to be techy...

We are going to try and post this video of Arianna crawling. You can hear our prompts in the background encouraging her to wave, but to no avail. Anyway, she does wave bye-bye but we couldn't get her to do it in the video...we'll keep working on that!

major prayer request

So, this is going to be deep. Ever have one of those weeks where you feel totally overwhelmed and out of control? That was this week for us. We've had one thing after another and it just feels like nothing is going right and that we are just going crazy! First, our vacuum broke. Not a big deal, but it was just the start. Then this week I had musical auditions. So, I was hardly ever home, I didn't get to see Arianna much and Jason had both daddy and mommy duties. Arianna FINALLY broke her top two teeth in, but with it came some serious diaper rash. Obviously, she was a little cranky, and I mean who could blame her? If I had sore buns, I would be cranky too! I got a MONSTER cold and feel like dung and I can't breathe. Then, we decided that we had to get rid of our two cats. They were starting to pee on the carpet and hiss at Arianna. So, we tried everyone that we could think of that would want to take our cats and no luck. So, we decided to take them to the humane society...turns out they won't take cats who pee outside of their litter box. They told us that they were probably sick (which I do think Oscar was sick) and the best thing we could do for them was put them to sleep. So, that's what we had to do. There really wasn't any other option, but we're both still super sad... and FINALLY, our new carpet is coming in next week Monday and Tuesday so we're looking at a weekend of trying to move our furniture around for the carpet. So, we're about out of gas over here. If everyone could just pray that things will start looking up that would be great. It seems as though we're just trying to keep our heads above water right now...
Thanks for all the support already for me with going back to work and all. It's still going great. Arianna loves her daycare and I"m getting into the swing of things and the daily routine is getting easier. Thanks again for all your concern. Let me know if there are any prayers that you need!

Basic news

So, it's the end of the first official week of school for me. Last week I just had meetings ALL day EVERY day, it was a blessing to have students. I think it will be a pretty good year. Overall, the week went well (I only cried on Monday!) Arianna loves her daycare which is a true answer to prayers. Keep us informed on how you're all doing. I'll post new pictures soon...she's growing daily! She's a chunk!

Arianna's new trick

Not only is Arianna able to crawl, she pulls herself up on ALL the furniture. She's received a few bumps and bruises but that doesn't seem to stop her. Her other favorite pastime is chasing the cats. They can still get away, but she laughs the entire time. Here is Arianna closely looking at Chloe...

Here is Arianna getting Chloe's tail...

And here is Chloe taking refuge on the kitchen table with Arianna in hot pursuit. This goes on ALL day...

and yes, those are pink ruffles on her buns, you can't get cuter than that. Hope you're all doing well and pray for our cats!!! :)

Jason's Big Day

So, the other day, Jason was able to go to the MIS NASCAR Race. It was a really fun day to spend with some buddies of his, unfortunately, the race was cancelled due to rain. So, they never actually got to see a race, but still a fun day.

Basic news..

So, we're getting new carpet!! Some of you may be wondering why we are getting new carpet seeing as we just built our house 2 years ago. Well, it seems as though our current carpet is defective and is fraying. We have little puff spots all over. So, it's a blessing that we're getting new carpet (free of charge) but also a huge hassle that we have to move everything!!! I have no idea where we're going to put all of our stuff while they install new carpet, but I'm sure it will work out. Pray as we start getting ready to do that. I promise that I'll post new pictures soon. Hope you're all doing well!

PTL!!!

Arianna is FINALLY eating again! She took a bottle on Wednesday for the first time since Saturday! I never thought I could be so happy to see my child drink from a bottle! We've had a rough couple of days with trying to force feed but that all seems to be done with for now. The top two teeth haven't broken through yet, but they are almost there. Thanks for all the words of advice and encouragement!!!!

CRAWLING!!

So, Arianna is able to crawl. It's sad, really. I never realized how much stuff we have on the floor that wouldn't be good for her to play with. She loves trying to "get" the TV or steal the remote from daddy. She is something else. She also getting her top two teeth and had decided that eating is too painful. So, off to the doctor we went this morning because I was afraid she was dehydrated. She was and we had to force some food down her. Let me tell you...that was not fun. Other than that, she's still happy and healthy. It is amazing how fast they grow. We're still loving summer and enjoying every minute of her.

A day in the life...

So, because it's UNBELIEVABLY hot outside, we've been doing a lot indoors. Seriously, it's unreal outside. Arianna is doing well. We had to go and buy her a bigger car seat today. Very sad. She technically could still fit in her infant one, but I had a coupon for the bigger one so we figured why not. It's really sad to see her getting so big, but at the same time I am so happy to have a healthy happy baby girl. She's getting HUGE! The last few days, she's been a little under the weather with a low temp and lots of neediness. I think it's teeth, but who really knows. Hope everyone is doing well and we love hearing from everyone. Remember to keep us updated on how you're all doing. Enjoy the heat! Oh, if anyone is interested, our family pictures came back. They are posted at tinavinkportraits.smugmug.com Let me know what one you like!

Just some thoughts

Hello everyone. I just wanted to update everyone on how we're doing over here in Michigan! Things are good. We're loving summer and having quality time as a family. Everyday Arianna is doing new things and she is a constant reminder of God's grace and blessings. She laughs all the time now and is ALMOST crawling. I'm not sure I want her to be mobile quite yet, but it doesn't look like I have a choice. She's just getting cuter and cuter every day. We got family pictures last week, and hopefully they turned out. We haven't seen the proofs as of yet. Today Jason and I went and toured our new daycare for the fall. It was really sad for me. I love the place where Arianna will be going, but I still struggle with the thoughts that someone else might be there for one of her firsts...but I know that working is what is best for our family right now. Well, sorry to get so deep...school is right around the corner and I always get a little melodramatic around this time of year! Hope you're all doing great!

Pictures

Here are some pictures from our Iowa trip. Obviously we had a great time! It starts with Arianna and Grandpa and Grandma Nikkel. They weren't excited to see her or anything! Then, we have Arianna meeting the newest member of the Nikkel clan, Sammie. The third photo is Daddy trying to get Arianna to be a Hawkeye fan early on. Finally, Daddy is showing Arianna her Dutch heritage. It was a great trip!

We're home!

So, we went and visited Jason's family last week in Iowa. It was great fun and I promise that I'll post some new pictures soon. I just wanted to say hi to everyone. On the way home, Jason and I decided that was the last road trip for a while. 6 + hours in a car seat is too long for Arianna. She has a little bit of spitfire in her...wonder where she got that from! But, the trip was great and we loved seeing the Nikkel family. Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the FAST summer.

This one's for Grandpa Nikkel

So, Grandpa Nikkel was a little worried that mom and dad were only going to let me play tennis because of the cute outfits...and he really likes softball. So, mom went out and got out Grandma Roelofs old glove and I gave it a try! Look Grandpa Nikkel...I like it! But, I do need to point out that it's a left-handed glove...just like mom. I think that I'll like softball too...they have cute uniforms too, don't they?!

I'm 6 months old!!

This was supposed to be posted on June 27... Arianna's official 6 month birthday, but I didn't get to it. It's amazing how time just FLIES by. She's getting so big already! She can totally sit on her own (she only tips when she sees the cats go by and gets really excited!) and she's laughing and giggling all the time. Currently her favorite foods are sweet potatoes and banana apple dessert. She's loving life. She is such a blessing to our family. Hope you're all enjoying the blog...remember if you have comments, go ahead and make them! I check this all the time. Hope everyone is doing well.

Day at the Beach

Because it was sooooo beautiful outside we decided to take a drive out to Holland beach for the evening. It was such a relaxing night. Arianna loved the boats and looking at the water. It was so much fun. Dad is already trying to get her to love sports, so we bought her a pink Nike tennis outfit. Mom agreed to the outfit because it was pink... but, Dad has to agree that Arianna loves listening to show tunes. Her favorite right now is Beauty and the Beast. She loves listening to Mommy sing along withe Belle. Seriously, she loves it. I think she's going to take after Mom with a love of music, but Dad will never give up hope.

Figured it out...

Obviously, I figured out how to post some pictures. My goal is to keep this updated, add new picutres etc. on a bi-weekly basis. By doing this, everyone can keep up on what's happening. Enjoy!

June 21

Good Morning. So, I'm just trying this out to see if I'm tech-savy enough to do this. Things are going well. Arianna is STILL sick with an ear infection and sinus infection so I'm not getting a whole lot of sleep lately. But, she is starting to sit up on her own, which is very cool. It's amazing what babies can do! I'm working on posting some pictures, but I haven't figured that out yet. I'll post more later when I have more time! Hope this works!