Thank You!

OK, it has been so much fun to read all of your great name suggestions. I have a long list for girl and boy names now, so it will be fun to see who we end up with and what we choose.

I haven't posted pictures in awhile, so I thought I'd give you a brief update of the goings on of 2010 with a few fun pics.
This is Emmy, all ready to go to her friend's Fancy Nancy Birthday Party. This was quite a posh affair that required a long time of choosing the right accessories and attempting to curl her stubbornly straight hair to look like Nancy's ringlets. She was ready by 8:30 in the morning, but by the time we left for the party at 9:45, she'd removed almost all of the accessories - deeming them itchy or in the way. I should have taken a picture earlier - she was quite a fancy girl.


Whenever we color with markers or paints, Sophie becomes preoccupied with painting herself. One day, I was tired of trying to get her to stick with the beautiful blank sheet of paper in front of her, so I stripped her down, gave her the paints, and stuck her in the bath. When Emmy saw what was going on, she was close behind. This ended up being a wonderful activity for a cold day. The body painting lasted about an hour and the bath that followed was almost just as long.

A visit from Nannie and Opa. In the middle of January, we were thrilled to have my parents come stay with us for a week. We had the most wonderful time. Emmy and Sophie were so excited to see them. On the day before they arrived, I asked Emmy if she thought we should do anything special when they came. She, apparently, had been thinking this through, because she immediately answered by saying, "Well. I was thinking. I can wear my most beautiful dress, and when they get here, I will be hiding. If they can't find me, I'll jump out and say, 'Boo!'" I thought it was so funny that she'd come up with that little plan and was very excited to carry it out. So excited, that she refused to drive with me to the airport because she wanted to be hiding. She reminded me that she would not be able to hide very well in the car. So we stuck to her plan, and the smile on her face when they found her was priceless. Both Emmy and Sophie were all smiles, and I got a little teary-eyed seeing how happy they were. We really had a very fun time with them, despite the uncharacteristic torrential rains that poured down upon us each day of their trip. (See previous post entitled "The de Jong Curse" to be reminded of the terrible weather that follows my parents wherever they travel).