Ellie at 14 months

Ellie turned 14 mths old on Christmas Eve day. It's hard to get her to leave the note with her age on it alone, so it is absent in these pics. She is not yet walking, although she's getting closer. She can cruise around things and will often walk while holding onto hands, and even sometimes stand on her own, but she's not ready to let go yet. To my surprise, I did recently find her about 3/4 of the way up our staircase. Just the night before she had only gotten to the 2nd step!

She has 7 teeth, 4 on top and 3 on bottom. Still very little hair, although the back is filling out a bit. It seems to be quite light and thin at this point. She has gotten to be a bit of a picky eater and is not quite as willing to try new things as she once was. She still finds plenty to eat and especially likes the sweets. She drinks about 10-12 oz of whole milk a day, but she prefers to drink water. She is learning new words and animals sounds. Her favorite is to roar like a lion.

She is generally a very happy little girl. She also knows what she wants and is very vocal about it! She doesn't like to be told no, especially by daddy. It takes just a moment, then her eyes well up with tears and the lip quivers, and then the loud cry comes. It's kind of cute. Just kind of, though.

She loves to play with Micah and the two of them play back and forth in each others rooms very well. She loves to move things around and empty baskets of toys and fill them up again. She loves to put anything with a handle around her arm and drag it around and fill it with things, just like a purse. I hear that is an expensive habit for a girl to have!

Kids at Christmas

Here are a couple of pics of the kids at the "King Christmas". It was a fun time and we watched the snow fall ALL day long. Driving home was a bit precarious.

Micah got this great cowboy outfit (boots, vest, and hat) from Aunt Renee, Uncle Jeff, and cousin Justin. It is such a hoot on him!

Ellie had a busy day and here she is just laying in the middle of the floor taking a rest and taking everything in.

We got elfed

Check out this link.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1268866470


P.S. If Firefox is your default browser you will need to cut and paste this link into Internet Explorer.

Ellie's cast

Ellie has a new souvenir! It's a beautiful new purple cast on her right leg. What a lucky girl. I know that you are thinking, I wonder how she got to be so lucky? Well, it's all because she has a great mom...who happened to fall down the steps with her. This happened about 10 days ago. Of course she cried right away and I could tell her foot was a bit sore. After about 8-9 days it was still sore and she wouldn't put any weight on it. So I called the doctor who said to bring her in. After 2 rounds of x-rays (Ellie's least favorite part), the doctor discovered 2 fractures, one in her tibia and one in her fibula. Since it had been 10 days from the incident, the bones had already begun to heal. The wonders of being a baby and being so quick to heal. The pediatrician thought we should let it heal on its own, but after he called the pediatric orthopedist, a cast was suggested. So over to St. Paul we headed to have a cast put on. Luckily (see, again, she is lucky!), she only needed a short leg cast and not a full leg cast. All in all, it was a long day, but she really was a trooper. The only time of extended tears was during the x-rays. The cast hasn't slowed her down at all and she moves around just fine with it. If all goes as planned, it should come off in a couple of weeks. We are grateful as it could have been much worse!

Ellie's birthday

Ellie had a great birthday party on Saturday. She was in such a great mood, which was so wonderful for our somewhat finicky little girl. She let everyone hold her and play with her and was very content. I've posted just a couple of pics of her with her cake and a picture of her kissing one of her new dolls. She received several dollies and some toys and some cute new clothes. It was a fun time for all.

Eating Cake

Here's Ellie trying out the cake at her first birthday party. I think she liked it!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Our little princess is ONE today! We can hardly believe it...the past year has gone by so fast! Mom, dad, and Micah entered her room this morning singing a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday". She cried. But after that things got better. Overall, she had a very quiet birthday and she was quite unaware of the milestone she reached today. We went to JCPenney's this morning for her one year pictures and ended up with pics of her and of Micah and of the whole family. They have a way of convincing us that we need every cute picture that they take. Both the kids did really well and enjoyed being in front of the camera. After that we grabbed a quick lunch and headed home for naptime. That was about the extent of the celebration today. Saturday will be the big family party with grandmas and grandpa and aunts and uncles and cousins. We'll let her dive into a cake then. I foresee her being very good at that as she doesn't mind getting messy! Happy Birthday Ellie! We love you!

Micah's Tuff Guy Dance

Wonderful husband

I'd like to just brag about my husband for a short bit. In case anyone doesn't know, he's really great! Last weekend he arranged, as a surprise to me and in celebration of my half birthday, to have his mom watch our two darling kids OVERNIGHT! He whisked me off to a hotel in Stillwater, took me out to dinner, and treated me to a great Shane & Shane and Bebo Norman concert. Now, I love my kids and enjoy spending lots and lots (and lots and lots) of time with them, but it was such a treat to have a quiet night with just my beloved. And quite nice to sleep in until 9am and read the paper while eating breakfast! We spent Saturday just shopping and doing our own thing before picking up the kids after naptime. They had a great time and Micah was sad that he couldn't spend another night at "Mimi's". Thanks to Mimi for taking the kids and thanks to my wonderful husband for a great night away!

Ellie eating

All of a sudden, Ellie has a strong desire to feed herself with her spoon. She starts out with the spoon and can get it into her mouth, of course, but doesn't keep too much food on it. Pretty soon this (the pictures) is what ends up happening. She "drinks" her applesauce or yogurt or whatever. And makes a mess. Today at lunch she wanted her spoon, so I gave it to her and held her bowl while she ate applesauce. She was so mad when I did not let her pick up her bowl to drink it. I am going to try to break the habit very quickly...hmmm....maybe I need to get some of those bowls with the suction cups on the bottom. Not a bad thought!

Ellie at 11 mths

Elliana is 11 months old today! How can we be only one month away from her turning one?!? We can't even believe how fast the past year has gone. Ellie is at such a fun stage right now. She is busy crawling around and getting into everything. She loves to chase us around and just giggles and giggles when she finds one of us in a different room. She LOVES to play with shoes and is often found digging through her shoes and playing with them. She and Micah play very well together, until she knocks one of his towers down. Micah is very helpful with her and will bring her toys or play games with her. She lights up whenever he comes around. She also loves Cooper and he tolerates her quite well. She doesn't really have any words yet, but does chatter quite a bit and is working on it. She is a great eater and does quite well with almost anything I put in front of her. Last week she even ate chili and enchiladas (on separate occasions)! She will even eat most vegetables, which I still can't get Micah to do. There are no signs of walking yet and she is just able to pull herself up to her knees. She is a pretty good sleeper and is still taking 2 naps a day (praise the Lord!). All in all, the past 11 months have flown by and we are loving our dainty (OK, chunky) little princess.

First day of preschool

Yesterday was Micah's first day of preschool. He was sooooo excited for it and could hardly wait to go. We met his teacher and saw his classroom a couple of days ago. Sending him off to preschool was hard on mom, and I drove away a little teary-eyed! I hadn't really thought much about it until the time came, but it made me very anxious to leave him. Now it's not like we never leave him anywhere and he loves to go places and do things. But for some reason, this was a big deal to me. What was I worried about? I'm not exactly sure, but it had to do something with wanting him to do well and make friends and not get picked on or feel insecure or unsure. It probably was one of my hardest moments as a mom. A wise aunt told me that it's kind of like a butterfly leaving the cocoon. The butterfly needs to struggle to get out and is strengthened through that process. If we help the butterfly out it isn't able to build the strength it needs. Micah was not struggling about preschool, but I know those moments will come and it will be very hard to watch those struggles. Anyway, too serious of a post for our usually upbeat blog!

Go Vikings!

Ellie's new chair from Gram.

Micah at 3 1/2 with his hand that he traced. He was so proud of it and wanted mom to take his picture with it.



Our family in Vikings gear. The kids and I in the only Vikings gear we own....AJ in one of several items that he owns. And you can't see them in this picture, but he even has Vikings socks on! Go Vikes!

Micah's prayer

Yesterday Micah prayed for the new baby of our neighbors. Here is how his prayer went:
Dear God, Thank you for Megan's baby...
I hope she doesn't cry...
I hope she crawls soon...
I hope she gets out of her mommy's tummy. Amen.

How precious is that!?! It was a very heartfelt prayer for that new little baby.

She's crawling....

So here's one of our first posts on YouTube. Ellie is crawling now and loves to chase the puppy in this video. She also gets such a kick out of crawling from the living room into Micah's room and finding Micah in there. She gives a high pitched squeal all the way in there, and then just squeals and giggles in delight when she finds him. It is very fun to see them interact!

Celebrity look-a-likes

OK, so I stole the idea from Shari's blog...but it was fun to do. Check out the celebs that AJ and I look like. I also did the pics of the kids to see if they looked more like AJ or I, but it was very inconclusive. Ellie was 50/50, and Micah looked 8% more like me. Anyway, it was fun to check out at www.myheritage.com.

AJ's celebrity look-a-likes

Celebrity look-a -likes

Summer vacation

What a relaxing week! We had a family vacation last week at a rented cabin near Cumberland, WI. All of Amy's family (mom, dad, sisters & their families) were there for most of the week. The cabin was beautiful, spacious, and accommodated all 16 of us very well. It was the Pipe Lake Lodge on Pipe Lake and we spent most of the week just relaxing. We all enjoyed doing lots of swimming, playing in the sand, doing puzzles, hiking, reading, playing games, and a little bit of eating....OK, LOTS of eating. Sitting on the porch and reading while listening to the sounds of the lake was the best part. We heard loons several times and watched thunderstorms come in over the lake a couple of evenings. It was a great time and we would have loved to stay another week. We hope to go back and do it again soon.

Ellie at 9mths

So here's Ellie at nine months old. We were at the doctor last week and she was declared "a healthy and beautiful baby". We agreed! Here are her stats: 20lbs even (60 percentile), 27 1/4 inches tall (50 percentile), and head circumference of 17 inches (40 percentile). So even though she has unlimited rolls on her legs, she 's still just about average. She loves to eat "real" food, although she does tend to play with it a bit (hence the noodles on her head)! She has just two bottom teeth, but the top two should be appearing any day now. You parents out there know that we could be saying that for weeks. I guess they'll come when they are ready! She is not crawling, but can make her way around by spinning, scooting, & stretching. She a good sleeper but an early riser. She takes two good naps a day and has become quite predictable. Her arms and legs go wild when dad, Micah or Cooper come around and she loves playing with any of those three. She is a joy to us all and we are so blessed to have her!

Fenway, Shea and Yankee Stadium Baseball Tour

This year our baseball tour took us to the East coast. We took an early morning flight (5:30 AM) to Boston. We went to Cheers and then to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play Toronto. Fenway was very very cool. From the outside it does not look much like a stadium. Here is a picture of the park.
Randy and I both got a Monster Dog. It was the largest hot dog I have ever seen and to tell you the truth if I did not have another hot dog until next Summer that would be OK. Here is Randy with his Monster Dog.
On Sunday we saw the Mets play Cincinnati Reds. Shea stadium was much nicer than I thought it would be. In the background you can see the construction of the Mets new stadium.
We spent some time in New York City and then Monday night we saw the Yankees play Toronto.

Long Time No Post

Has it been a month since our last post? Shame on us! We've had lots going on and the blog has gotten pushed to the bottom of the list. Here are some updated pictures of the kids. Ellie is almost 9 mths old and is such a doll. She is a great little girl. She spends lots of time wiggling and spinning around, but is not crawling yet. That will come soon enough...right now I am grateful that she is quite content to sit and play.

The picture of Micah is from his first visit to Chuck E. Cheese (or as Micah calls it Chunk E. Cheese) for his friend Amara's birthday. They had a great time playing the games and running around. Micah is having a great summer and is enjoying every minute he can be outside.

Kids at home

A couple of funny shots from home. The first is of Ellie eating an animal cracker, which Cooper just happens to love. You can tell he was just hoping to steal some from her.

The other day Micah came running out from his bedroom saying, "Mom, come quick. Get the camera and come quick." I thought, "Oh, boy, what is this child up to now?" It turns out that this is what I found and he thought we just had to have a picture of it. Like the Little People may never stand all together on the stool again. I captured the moment to humor him and he was happy about it!

Maiden Voyage

Our first trip out in the new pop-up was Father's Day weekend. It was such a fun time! Everyone did better than expected (kids and dog included!). We camped at Bent Trout Lake Campground near Barnum, MN. It is a private campground on a small but beautiful lake. We were joined by AJ's aunts, uncles, cousins (& boyfriends), grandma, and mom. There was a good storm that came through on Friday night, but Saturday was picture perfect. We were able to spend some time on the beach and in the water swimming and canoing. Sunday morning threatened rain, so we quickly took the trailer down, which is why our family picture is with it down. It ended up not raining, but we didn't want to take that risk. If we take down the pop-up in the rain, we would have to set it up at home to let it dry out to avoid yucky mold growing where we do not want it. It was such a great time and we cannot wait to make another trip out again soon.

Summer is here....

Yesterday we headed to Spooner, WI to visit my sister and brother-in-law and their kids. We had a great time at their church and then having lunch at their house. They happen to have a lot of dirt in their backyard, which the kids LOVED to play in! His is a pic of Micah and his cousin Caleb hiding beneath layers of dirt!

My Golf Trip (Adventure)

There is an annual tradition that a couple of college buddies and I have. We try and find a couple nice golf courses and take a couple of days and go golfing. This year we went to Giants Ridge Golf and Ski Resort. We stayed at the Villas at Giants Ridge which were very nice.

The first day, Sunday, we golfed the Legend. It was OK. It was scenic but the greens were in pretty bad shape. Here is a picture of hole #3 it is a par 5 476 yard hole from the blues.


But the fun did not happen until... between hole 12 and 13. You know what it is like when you get 4 college friends together. We were having fun trying to pass each other in the golf carts when Aaron almost pushed Brent and I into a tree... at that point it was on. We were back and forth while driving and then came the big hill... with a very sharp corner the bottom of it and a very steep hill or wooded embankment of impending doom. Can you see where this is going? Unfortunately Aaron could not, he was busy looking back at us making sure we were not going to pass him or try something. Then he turned around and look forward (a novel idea when driving a cart towards the wooded embankment of impending doom) once he turned around it was too late. He tried to make the corner and hit a good sized rock, which put the cart up on two wheels. Amazingly he gained control long enough to get it back on all fours just in time to hit some loose rock and put him back up on two wheels and into the embankment (it was about 35-40 degrees steep). We saw Aaron bail and thought the cart landed right on top of him but thankfully it had hit a rock and skipped over him. Scott, the passenger (who, according to Aaron may have deserved this, was also in the cart. Scott had rolled a vehicle in our college days with Aaron in the car so Aaron just called this even) Both people were safe. They hit a 8-10ft dead tree stump which shattered when they hit it and they also killed about 30-40 little saplings. Here is a picture of where the cart landed (we did not take a picture of the cart down there because we wanted to get it out of there as fast as possible so we would not get in trouble). Amazingly we got it out. It was about 25 feet into the woods on a steep hill. The cart had landed on it's side and we righted it up and actually got it out. There was only one scratch on the entire cart and it ran... until the next hole then it promptly died and started to rain. HARD



One last picture of the Legend. This is their signature hole, #17



On Monday we played the Quarry twice. We are all glad we chose to play that course twice... It was one of the nicest courses any of us had ever played. The first time through we played for individual score. Ouch is all I am going to say. When you start with a 9 on a par 5 you know it is going to be rough. Then the second time through we played two man best ball. Brent and I won last year by seven strokes. This year Brent and I only hit 5-6 fairways. We were horrible but kept it close and only lost by 3 or 4 strokes... Aaron feel free to correct me, but be accurate. When we played best ball we played from the tips (for those not familiar with golf that is the farthest tee box back) the course played 7,201 yards that way. All in all it was fun. Here are a couple of pictures of the Quarry.

Just a couple of new pics of the kids at the park the other day. We head there quite often when it is nice out. Many times we have it all to ourselves and Micah runs all over everything. He is much braver this year and sometimes even a little daring! I have to keep an eye on him. Ellie just goes along for the ride and is content to sit in the stroller and watch Micah run around.

Our new vacation home

Isn't she a beauty?! AJ and I have talked for years about getting a camper and happened to come upon a good deal recently. We love camping, but are not quite adventurous to tent it with the kiddos. Even this might be a stretch when Ellie wakes up half the campground in the middle of the night/early morning. However, we are super-excited about it...almost giddy, actually. It is a pretty basic pop-up with no bathroom or running water, but it will keep us out of the rain/bugs and off the ground. We hope to make many family memories in it!