We began our new year with a quick trip to see the Walz family in Toledo. Based on Mira’s most recent adventure in the hospital last month. We are very conservative around how much and how agressive she can play. The Walz’s are famous for having 2 big boxers who are about as nice as they come. They have a cute little girl named “Elsa” who is always playing with Cosmo and Dixie the playful doggies.

For Mira, it’s just an excuse to:

1. Play in the dog cage. Which is about as cool as all get out.
2. Get lots of kisses from the dog. As grown ups, we call them kisses. But really it’s our way of saying that, “We’re cool with your dog licking our child’s face. And then our child enjoying getting her face licked.”
3. More strange and wonderful toys to play with that may or may not have been slobbered on by said dogs.

Here’s a nice pic of Mira playing with the dogs:

Mira, Dixie and Cosmo

There are not many pictures of John and Baby Elsa. But I snapped one for inclusion to the blog:

John and Elsa

And of course Mira got to take a ride on Elsa’s rocking horse. You would think that this little 2 year old Miracle of our would be hesitant or cautious a mere 3 weeks from death’s door. Tell me what you think?

Ride em cowgirl!

January also brought to us the baptism of baby Darcy, Mira’s cousin. Mira see’s baby Darcy so much. All babies are now called, baby Darcy. All baby dolls are baby Darcy. It’s great.

The baptism was in Muskegon and it gave us another excuse to get in the car and drive for 6 hours (one way). Man, I love that drive. It’s super awesome! But we had a great time at the baptism. And Mira just adores baby Darcy. Here is a great shot of baby Darcy, Erika, Lindsay (Erika’s sister) and Mira. What fun!

Darcy, Erika, Lindsay, Mira

So, back to Cleveland we drove. Through the snow, ice, wind and cold. And it was snowy. The weather reports said it was the second most snow Cleveland had ever seen for the month of January. What do you do in snowy weather? Turn the heat up, drink hot cocoa and make snowmen. After making our big “Sparty” snowman. Mira was insistent that we build a baby “Sparty” for the daddy Sparty. Here she is the the baby “Sparty” snowman.

Baby Sparty and Mira

Snow, snow and more snow. We just couldn’t get enough and Cleveland was kind enough to oblige in January…