Days like Today

It's days like today, snowing and freezing, that make me look forward to my trip to Florida in February and my trip to California in March!

8 months old!

Evelyn is 8 months old. I can't believe how big she is getting and for some reason all this growing is causing her to need some extra feedings during the night, we'll see how long this lasts. We couldn't be more proud to have such a wonderful daughter and spirit in our home.

Fun-Filled Holiday!

Well we have made it back home after an awesome Christmas break with all our families. We seemed to fit in a lot of fun in such a short amount of time. The trip started off with a days drive to Georgia to enjoy some visiting with Kyle's family. The next day was my birthday, which I can't believe I'm already 28 years old. It was so fun, we went to the Aquarium in Atlanta which really was awesome. I love the water and loved seeing all the animals. It is the largest aquarium and you could see just about any water animal you could think of. Later I got to go and get a nice manicure and pedicure.
I think Evelyn enjoyed seeing all the fish as well, though she wasn't into the fake ones. That weekend Kyle and I got to have our own little getaway while Evelyn stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. Our first plans were to go to New York but when we saw the big snow storms and delayed airlines, we said never mind and had Delta fly us to lovely Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It was so warm and relaxing. It was a nice 80 degrees. Kyle and I spent just about all day on the beach soaking up the sun. We sure did miss Evelyn it was the first time I was away from her that long, but it was nice to have a short break and to have a few uninterupted nights of sleep.

Here's Kyle eating some huge crab legs.
Christmas at Kyle's parents house was really nice, it was fun to see everyone and enjoy the time together.

Christmas morning was my favorite. I just loved watching Evelyn open her presents and see her reactions. I'm sure I was more excited than she was but we did have fun with her. She is just such a cutie and growing so fast, she came home with 2 teeth. Lucky for us she is such a good traveler and had fun visiting with all her aunts, uncles and cousins.

Here we are headed to California. Evelyn got to enjoy a nice seat in first class. I mean I don't think she thought she would travel any other way, hopefully the guy next to her was able to enjoy his first class experience with a 7 month old next to him.
Evelyn was so excited to see her cousin Chloe, they had so much fun together.
We went and visited my sister, Dr. Judd, at her office. Evelyn was just glad to know this doctors visit didn't include any shots.

For New Year's my brother's family had a party at their house which was a lot of fun. We ate a lot of good food and enjoyed bringing in the New Year together.

We really enjoyed the time we had with our families and friends and were sad to leave but we do look forward to another fun semester with our Michigan family.

The Koester Dancers

Well the Koester dancers are back from last year and we have added one more member to the group. So pause my music that's playing down at the bottom and then press play to enjoy the show.

Our Thanksgiving Feast

This year we had a great Thanksgiving. We surely missed not being with either of our families but luckily for us we have some great friends here in Lansing that we got to share the day with. The day started off early with me running the 5k turkey trot downtown. It was a lot of fun but it was really cold. There were over 1200 people that came out to run the race.

Thanks Kyle and Evelyn for coming out and cheering me on, it gave me just that much more motivation.

I felt good about my results and was so glad I went out and did it. I ended up coming in 3rd place in my division and came in 13th place out of all women.
Later that day we had Thanksgiving dinner at our place. We had a total of 15 people, it was great to have such an awesome group. The food was so good. Kyle did great at cooking the turkey and making homemade gravy. All the sides were so good and the pies did well to polish everything off. Thanks to our friends for making the day so nice. The rest of our weekend has been pretty chill. Kyle is very busy studying for finals but we were able to catch a movie Saturday night and eat a burger at Johnny Rockets. The movie of the night was The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It was really a great movie. It takes place during the holocaust, it is very touching so if you have a chance I would recommend going and seeing it.

Silver Bells

Friday we attended the Silver Bells Parade downtown. It was freezing cold but it was fun to get hot chocolate and get into the Christmas spirit. Christmas is my favorite holiday and December is my favorite month so I like to live it to the fullest and do all the classic activities. I don't think Evelyn enjoyed having to be so bundled up, she was feeling a little claustrophobic but she did seem to enjoy looking at the lights and getting out of the house.

6 Whole Months!!

Wow I can't believe Evelyn is 6 months old today, she really is just growing up so fast. She had an eventful day today by going to the doctor and getting all her shots. She came in at just over 27 inches long and over 17 pounds, they keep telling me how she is going to be a tall girl. She has been such a joy in our lives and has filled our home with such peace and love. I love watching all the new things she tries to do and comes to discover. She likes to scoot around on her back, loves to put anything and everything in her mouth and has finally figured out what to do in her jumper and really likes being in it now.

This is a look when she has probably done something and hopes nobody figures it out.


This is a picture of her face when she is fed up with mom trying to take so many pictures of her.
In other news all is going well at our little household. Kyle is very busy studying for finals coming up here shortly so it was nice when last weekend we had the opportunity to go out. It started off at a banquet dinner for law journal and ended off with us at the movies seeing W. It was actually a pretty decent movie I thought and interesting to see the life of George W. I didn't really know. Monday morning I played basketball at the church with some other girls and that was a lot of fun. I really miss playing and am glad I have an opportunity again, so all you ladies in the ward should come out. It is starting to get pretty cold here and I'm not sure if I am really ready for it, but hopefully the winter will go by quickly.