Beauty Time with Mama

Do you think she likes the blow dryer?

So I have been waiting for the longest time to do fun stuff to Nicolynn's hair. So Monday was the day I was going to put curlers in her hair after her bath. We (I) had lots of fun trying to get 5 curlers to stay in her hair while Nicolynn wanted to "help" comb her hair or squirm. But we did it. For maybe a while 10seconds I had 5 curlers in her hair. But when I took them out... no curls. Oh well, maybe next year. :)

Papa Time

 Josh and I started taking a parenting class called "Growing Kids God's Way", and we are thoroughly LOVING it. And Nicolynn loves it too. She gets her "Papa time". And of course, Papa spoils her perfectly :) She gets to ware him out, this time by riding on his back. But she also likes to give Papa a turn to ride on hers. :)

Play Day with Grandma H

Last week Thursday was such a beautiful day, and I was able to spend it with Nicolynn and Grandma. I took lots of pictures while those two played and ran around. We walked thru leaves in their back yard, looked for salmon in the river, played on the neighbors swing set, and sat on Grandpa's tractor.

Then we were off to Helder Park.

Pumpkin Parade

Ok, I got behind again on writing on my blog... But in the meantime, we went to Nicolynn's first parade. The pumpkin parade!!!! It was a cold and slightly rainy day, so I made Nicolynn some warm milk to drink. She enjoyed that. (I would not have...)   After the parade we went to a "petting zoo" that they brought down town. Nicolynn LOVES animals. She's not afraid of any of them. She want to pet them, ride them, hug and kiss them. She can't get enough.
After the parade we picked up some pumpkins to paint and carve. And then later that night we went out to crazy horse for Grandma and Grandpa Holtrop's anniversary. Nicolynn did very well, but she is so shy. We walked into Crazy Horse, and she but her head down and wouldn't look at anyone. We set her on the stool and she didn't even look at the buzzer they give you to hold until your table was ready. The lights and everything was flashing on it, and she wouldn't look at anything.

ABC's & 123's

Mommy got a new phone she had to try out, and Nicolynn has some new words!!!

Our walk to the park

Today was such a beautiful Fall day!!! So we went out for a walk to the park.
On our walk we found different leaves, and picked some wild flower. Nicolynn was pretty disappointed when I didn't pick her a flower from around someones house though. :) That's something I will have to keep explaining I think.

At the park she played on the swings, and Nicolynn decided she wanted to drink her milk in the pretend kitchen at Timbertown. So she sat down on the chair, and signed and said milk. She's just starting to talk more now. And the words she has signed for the last year, are some of the first words she speaks. When I ask her if she wants "more" (the first word we signed), she nods her head yes as she says "more".  We have so much fun!

And to top off our little walk, we saw 2 snakes on the way home. Nicolynn spotted one, and I spotted the other. And they just stayed there so we could look at them.

Play Date with Luci and "Pay-Pay"

Aunt Lindsey and her two girls...

 Last week we were able to have a play date with Aunt Lindsey and Luci (the little girl Lindsey Nannys for). But the star of the visits is always Payton the doggy, which both the girls call Pay-Pay. Luci has been saying Pay-Pay before Nicolynn was even thinking about talking, but now Nicolynn chimes in too. Nicolynn loves Pay-Pay, but Pay-Pay doesn't always love Nicolynn. So Aunt Lindsey gave Nicolynn a doggy treat to get Payton to play with her :)

John Ball Park Zoo

Yay!!! This time we actually made it into the Zoo. Nicolynn and I went with Grandma, Aunt Sarah, Zachary and Baby Levi. Nicolynn really enjoyed herself, and so did I. After labor day we could get in for $5 and Nicolynn is free because she is a baby yet!!! Yay! Another plus. They did have some of the animals put away for the season, but there were plenty left to look at. We saw lions, mountain lions, different birds like eagles, crows and flamingos, many different monkeys, farm animals, penguins, and owls. (There were more animals than I just listed, but those were at the top of my head right now.)

Helping Aunt Sarah push the stroller...

Nicolynn wants to touch all the animals, and Zachary wants to look at them all from a distance. :) Levi did very well. He only cried a little and he's only a month old. (Oh and Grandma and Aunt Sarah did well too.) :) We all had fun.

Dancing girl

DeGraaf Nature Center

We went to DeGraaf Nature Center this summer, and I was pleasantly surprised  with the place. It was a great little outing for Nicolynn's age. We went on a rainy day so we didn't stay to walk the trails much. But we were in the nature center for a while. They had rabbits that Nicolynn could play with. She was able to touch some turtles, play in some sand, and Nicolynn saw a real owl. The owl blinked a lot, so Nicolynn whenever we asked her to say 'owl'.

we visited a park afterward

We never saw it coming...

Ok, so the other day I tried to get some cute stuff on video, and it started out so good.
Then it went south from there...

When I replayed this in front of Nicolynn, it made her cry again :(

Oh, and I added some pictures of her "jumping" :)

And no... she does not leave the ground, even in real life.

Hudsonville Fair

 We always love an outing that involves animals!!! This time we went to the fair with my mom, Kelli, and the Borst girls. We had such a good time we decided to make Daddy come with us in the evening.

Nicolynn found a little cubby to hang out in...

Best friends already???

We HAVE TO touch the pigs ear!!!

Timmerman's House

We went to Uncle Mitch and Aunt Sarah's house for Grandma H's birthday party. We had a good time playing in the back yard with the kiddos.

The Zoo... well almost.

Well, one Tuesday night I didn't have hair clients, so Josh and I were going to take Nicolynn to the Zoo. Once we got there, we found out it was closed. FAIL. Previously we did look up their hours for Tuesday's, but apparently every Tuesday is not the same. I felt pretty bad because I told Nicolynn she was going to get to see monkeys. So instead of the monkeys we ended up going to a play ground nearby. As we were walking, Nicolynn pointed at something in the distance and started doing her monkey sound. I'm not sure if what she saw was human, or if it was a dog or squirrel. But I guess in her eyes, she was able to see a monkey. :)

Gentex Picnic

Gentex picnic almost got rained out, but we were able to enjoy ourselves. We went to the 5/3rd Ball Park, and were able to take over AJ's fun park also. So first we did the batting cages and bumper boats. Then when we got inside AJ's we found out we could have as many tokens as we wanted. So we played some arcade games (which just ended up being Nicolynn putting the coins in the slots for fun).
At the ball park, the parking lot was full of different carnival games. Most of them Nicolynn couldn't enjoy. So we headed in the park where we could pretty much eat as much as we wanted, free hotdogs and hamburgers, popcorn and pop.
They even had the Mega80's band come out on the field to play. (Nicolynn danced on the field to the music) And then they had fireworks. This was the first time Nicolynn saw fireworks. We got rained on on the way out, but it was a fun night.

The Big Sand Dune

Earlier this August we went to the beach again! This "dune" is only about 6 feet high, but it looks a lot bigger with Nicolynn on it.

Emerson Lake

Nicolynn and Daddy on the dock!

We played with fish!!

Boat Ride!!!

We played with a toad!!!

Loves "My Little Pony"

We even took the paddle boat in the water.

EMERSON LAKE!!!!
Once again we visited my parents at Emerson Lake in late July/early Aug. We stayed for 2 nights, and thankfully Nicolynn did very well sleeping through the night.
During the day we played on the beach, went swimming, went for boat rides, went for paddle boat rides, tried to fish a little bit and just had a good time!!!

Ottawa County Fare

"Is he allowed to do that mommy?"

So yesterday Nicolynn and I went to the fare with Cousin Zach and Aunt Sarah.

This is the first time Nicolynn got to see all the live animals that she has been reading about.

She loved it. Zach wasn't so sure about them though.

May I touch him please...

Nicolynn wanted to let them all "lick her hand" but I didn't trust most of them.

They are animals you know.

So I would take her hand, wrap mine around it, and maybe let part of the animal graze her hand a little bit. :)

I did let her touch a pigs ear, sheep wool, and a bunny's fur.

But I want her to keep all her fingers.

Can I touch this one? It's just a kangaroo...

Ok this is my stroller, go get your own. And I don't want to touch you anymore either.