King Family Blog

Way behind...

2010-05-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted much in a loooong time, but here are some pictures to highlight the last few months.

A family picture Easter morning

Ellie's April Fool's Day "grilled cheese" aka toasted
pound cake with orange frosting

Isaac had already had a bath and been put into his pj's
when he decided to climb back into the tub during Ellie's bath!

The kids picked out some wonderful birthday gifts for me
at the dollar store...a brownie mix, an exercise video,
a cooking video, a pez dispenser, and some gummy candies. They were so
excited about their purchases and AJ said that it was a hoot
taking them shopping. He had to reign them in and yet this is
what they can home with!

AJ and I at our first Twins game in the new stadium.
So much fun!

The kids enjoying some reading time in the corner!?!

Dancing and walking

2010-01-16T19:17:00.000-08:00

For your viewing enjoyment...

New Year's Eve 2009

2010-01-16T19:10:00.001-08:00

Patiently waiting for the big event to start....

...and here it is. The movie UP, popcorn, and donuts
on the living room floor, picnic-style.
Notice Isaac is missing (early to bed for him) and
these two were in bed by 9:00pm. AND AJ and I were in bed by 11:00ish.
What a great start to 2010!
Happy New Year!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-16T19:03:00.000-08:00

Micah and Ellie with Aunt Jen

Isaac with Grandpa Larry

Ellie & Dad

Ellie

2009-11-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

Is she cute or what?

Birthday parties

2009-10-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Ellie and Isaac celebrated their birthdays with a family birthday party. Grandma and Grandpa came into town, which was the highlight for all three of the kids. They don't get to see them nearly enough so whenever we do it's a big event. Isaac surprised us and had a great time hanging with Grandpa. Usually he won't sit with anyone other than mom and dad if we are in the room. But he and Grandpa were buds and had a great time together.
Here are some pics of the party. We made Ellie's cake and got Isaac's cake from Byerly's. FYI-Byerly's gives away a free cake for a child's 1st birthday. It was great and saved us from making 2 cakes for the party! When I asked Ellie what we should have to eat at her party she hemmed and hawed for a bit, then suggested that we serve "poptarts". While my kids would have loved it, I didn't think everyone else would so we served sandwiches, salads, & chips instead. We had a fun time!

Isaac's 1st Birthday

2009-09-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Isaac, Happy Birthday to Isaac, Happy Birthday dear Isaac, Happy Birthday to you. It was Isaac's 1st birthday today and he got a very special present. It was a wonderful rash or some sort of hives. Take a look at the great pics below. He woke up this morning with these red splotches all over. After getting lots of opinions (insurance nurse line, doctor's office, pharmacist, neighbor, friend, mother-in-law, random moms at Micah's soccer game), I finally decided to take him in to Urgent Care. Of course, they couldn't really tell me what it was or exactly what to do about it. They did send me home with some cream and told me that it would either make it better or make it worse. I'm hoping for better. We'll see how he looks tomorrow morning. We have a much more exciting birthday planned for mid-October when he and Ellie will have their family birthday parties.

First day of school

2009-09-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here is Micah on his first day of school. We started homeschooling yesterday and so far, so good. Check back in January and see if we are all still smiling about it! I'm a little worried about cabin fever come winter, but we had a great first day. Ellie has to join in with everything and has her "school supplies" with her in this picture. She does great and is happy to sit at the table and color and whatnot while Micah is doing his stuff.

And just a random picture of Isaac. He's a good eater and pounds down just about everything we put in front of him. I'm not sure what he was eating before this picture, but it looks like he enjoyed it!

Kid pics

2009-08-13T10:41:00.001-07:00

It's nearly impossible to get them all together in one shot and looking anywhere towards the camera, so here are 3 separate pics of the kids.

2009-07-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

OK, so why do we have a blog? Do I just write random things and send them off into cyberspace for no reason? Maybe sometimes, but the main reason that we have this blog is to share pictures and family stories with our family and friends. I think an additional benefit of the blog is that hopefully someday we will be able to have some form of it to pass on to our kids. I'm not much of a scrapbooker and I don't journal much, so this will be a record of a few of the highlights of their younger years. That being said, I'm posting a few pictures as a reminder of God's faithfulness and provision. It's too easy for me to take things for granted and move on, but I want my kids to know and to hear about the many ways that God provides for our family.

Here is Isaac with A LOT of baby food that Mimi found on clearance at Target! What a great deal! It still has a year until it's expiration date and he is loving it. Thanks Mimi!

I do a lot of bargain shopping and deal-seeking and was thrilled with this trip to CVS! I don't usually take pics and post about my finds, but I was very excited about only paying $1.81 for all this stuff! We'll keep some of it and send some of it to the food shelf. On a side note, we bought some fruit snacks at the grocery store the other day and the kids and I decided that one box will go to the food shelf as well. That was REALLY hard for my kids because they love fruit snacks and would eat them all the time if I let them. I thought it was a good sacrifice for them to make!

Finally, here is a pic with the kids and some "new" sand toys. A neighbor, who we hardly know at all, came over yesterday and offered a wagon-load of sand toys to our kids that her kids had outgrown. There were new trucks and bulldozers and sand molds and shovels (we seem to have disappearing shovels!). It was such a blessing and so much fun for the kids.

Thanks God for always providing in big and little ways!

Grand Slam!

2009-07-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Micah has started t-ball this year and is having a lot of fun with it! It's a riot to watch as many of them are playing for the first time. They don't keep score and there are no outs, so everybody wins...or as AJ puts it, "everybody loses". He's a bit more competitive! Several times Micah has been the last batter which means that he hits a grand slam! Check it out:

Happy Isaac?

2009-06-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

This looks like Isaac and sounds kind of like Isaac, but this baby seems to be happy. Huh. Could it be? Could he really be happy? OK, OK I digress. We have more and more of these moments and he is getting to be a better baby. I could do without the 5am wake-up call, but otherwise most days aren't too bad.

Micah Day at MOA

2009-05-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

AJ has a wonderful Grandma ("Gram") who enjoys spoiling others. Recently she decided that Micah should have a "Micah Day" at the Mall of America and he would get to do whatever he wanted to do. Of course, Micah thought that was a great idea. We all got to tag along and we all equally enjoyed his day. We started off at Underwater Adventures, which is a fun place to go. The kids loved the cool fish and all of the huge turtles. They each got to pick out something from the gift store. Micah chose a stuffed dolphin that he named "Swimmer" and Ellie chose a stuffed octopus that she named "Coco". Then we headed to Nickelodeon Universe to ride the rides. Our family has been there before, but just to look and not to actually go on the rides. It was a great treat to ride the rides and the kids had a great time. They stuck to the tame ones and AJ ended up riding most of them with the kids. The kids got face painting done except it was on their arms. We had lunch together in the food court where we could go wherever we wanted to get our food. The kids of course chose McDonalds with Gram, AJ had hot dogs, and I had chinese. After a short stop at LegoLand, it was back for a few more rides, some cotton candy, and then back AGAIN to Underwater Adventures. The passes were good for all day, so Micah thought we should go through it again. It was fun to see what different things the fish did in the afternoon (not much, they were pretty lazy compared to the morning activity!). We finally convinced Micah that we were worn out and it was time to go home. He had a great time and I'm sure it will be a memory he will talk about often. Thanks Gram!

Kid pics

2009-04-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

Again, I have been an unfaithful blogger. How can it be a whole month since the last post? Anyway, I don't have much to say but I do have some pics of the kids to post. So here goes:

Mmmmmm....green beans

Micah with a mohawk and a mean face.
Ellie boycotted a nap in her bed, so later fell
asleep on the couch.

2009-03-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Yippee! We have finally found something that our littlest one seems to enjoy. He likes to bounce in the johnny jump-up! And I mean he REALLY likes it. And he doesn't REALLY like much of anything (unless, of course, you count crying).

A big shout-out to Mimi for taking him for the entire weekend. She offered to have our sweet (OK very crabby) little boy for the whole weekend to give us a break and enjoy some focused time with Micah and Ellie. It was much appreciated and very refreshing.

Baby giggles

2009-02-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

This one is for grandma and grandpa who are missing out on all these giggles...

Micah's 5th birthday cake

2009-02-09T17:56:00.001-08:00

Here are the pics of Micah's "Candyland" cake. AJ and my mom usually do the cake decorating, but since mom and dad weren't able to make it (and were greatly missed!) I helped out AJ. He's still the main man and did a great job. We tried not to overwhelm the cake with candy, but there was plenty of it and it was awfully sweet. Micah loved it!

Ring bearer

2009-02-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

Micah was the ring bearer for AJ's cousin's wedding. He did so great and we were so proud of him!
He and Olivia, the flower girl, enjoyed some time on the dance floor:

This was their first dance...

Dance lessons from Olivia's dad...

How sweet is that? Then they went back to swinging around in circles!

Micah is 5!

2009-02-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

Our firstborn is officially 5 years old! How did that happen so fast? He had a great birthday last week filled with many of his favorite things: preschool in the morning with donuts for snacktime, Caribou smoothie and a game of Go Fish with dad in the afternoon, and supper at Chuck-e-Cheese with Amara in the evening. It was a 5-year-old's dream day! He enjoyed every minute of it. We will be celebrating with extended family this weekend.
He had his 5-year doctor check-up this morning and was declared healthy and quite normal. He is 44 in tall and weighs in at 42lbs.
Here are a few pics of his day.

Verse of the day

2009-01-26T09:56:00.000-08:00

I came across this verse this morning in my devotions:
John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble..."

So that's been the verse of the day, week, last four months or so, but there's more to that verse that I have neglected and am going to start repeating more often. Here it comes...

"...but take courage, I have overcome the world."

Cool. I need to stop focusing on the trouble and start focusing on the peace, courage, and overcoming parts.
I've been a bit grouchy lately and was encouraged by this today.

The best pick-up line by a 5-yr-old

2009-01-25T17:58:00.000-08:00

Overheard on the way to preschool the other day:

Micah: Amara, what does your tongue taste like?
Amara: I don't know.
Micah: We should touch our tongues together and see what they taste like.
Elisabeth (Amara's mom, thinking quickly and with a straight face): There's lots of germs on our tongues that we don't want to share so let's not do that.

First kiss averted. Whew!

Happy kids

2009-01-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

Kids

2009-01-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

Micah and Ellie enjoy entertaining Isaac, and he seems to like it as well. Here they are reading to him!

The kids made marshmallow/apple igloos today. They had fun making them, but ate them as soon as they finished them. Colored marshmallows are just too irresistible, I guess.

Random things

2008-12-30T07:25:00.000-08:00

It has been a very busy Christmas season and I have to admit that, while it was fun while it lasted, I'm kind of glad to see it go. We are very blessed to have wonderful extended families and we get to celebrate Christmas many times over at several different places. The kids love every minute of it and enjoy all the family gatherings. However, it gets a little hectic for mom and dad with three kids and mixed-up schedules and mealtimes and sweets and an abundance of gifts. I'm trying to figure out how to cut back on the chaos next year. I'm thinking it will get a bit easier as the kids get older.
We are excited to see 2009 come and to see what all it will bring. As we look back at 2008 we praise God for His many blessings: His protection, His provision, His grace, and His forgiveness, just to name a few. We are so grateful that when things around us are uncertain He alone remains steadfast, trustworthy, & sovereign.

One of our 2008 blessings is Isaac. He is officially 3 months old and we are enjoying him more and more every day. He has his ups & downs, and loves to coo and gurgle during the happy times. He is very ticklish and giggles and squirms and kicks a ton. He still isn't a great sleeper, so our nights are very unpredictable. We get some good ones and some not-so-good ones. Overall, we are all adjusting quite well and are starting to find somewhat of a groove. Now if we can just survive Jan and Feb, we'll be just fine!

Cookie time

2008-12-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

Great-grandma Mugs brought over cookies and all the fixins to do some decorating. The kids had a blast and enjoyed the decorating and the eating!

Can you tell?

2008-12-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

Here are the 3 kiddos at about the same age, I think. It's the same sleeper on each of them, so they all have to be in that 3 month and under range. The bottom two look pretty similar. They go in order of birth: top is Micah, middle is Ellie, and bottom is Isaac.

Can you believe it?

2008-12-02T18:56:00.000-08:00

Can you believe that some company would pay me $200 to bake cookies? I can't, but it is true! AJ and I are signed up with many different agencies to do taste test and market research focus groups. We get calls every now and then and most studies pay somewhere between $20-$40. However, we recently have had several calls for studies paying over $100! It's a total God-thing as we have been feeling the pinch of the rough economy and Christmas is coming. We are pretty diligent at finding deals and doing great bargain shopping (lots of coupons, etc), but this extra cash has been an answer to prayer.
Anyway, back to the cookies. There have been 3 steps to this study and total compensation will be $200. I had to do a phone interview, a homework assignment of baking cookies at home and uploading photos of the process, and an in-home visit while they watch me bake cookies. Total time is about 3hrs and about $10 out-of-pocket. And I don't even have to make cookies from scratch...it's all about refrigerated cookies! It's a great way to make a little extra cash and eat some cookies!

Three Musketeers

2008-12-02T18:48:00.001-08:00

Just a recent pic of the three kiddos. I can hardly get any pics of Isaac alone as the other two are always jumping in. Oh the woes of being a third child! Little Isaac is doing pretty well and it is so hard to believe that he has only been with us for 9 weeks. It seems hard to remember life without him. We have LOTS of ups and downs, good and bad days, but overall we are settling in pretty well. He is starting to smile much more and be a bit more content during the day. Our nights have actually gotten worse instead of better, so that has been challenging. I am a much happier person when I'm not up 4 times during the night! We are trying to enjoy this time of him being little, but I find myself often looking forward to a year from now (even 6 mths from now) when he is out of my not-so-favorite baby stage!

Micah & Ellie

2008-11-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of new pics of the older two kids. They are typical siblings, playing together great a lot of the time, but also bugging each and fighting over toys. I can't wait until Isaac can get into the mix!

Cowboy Micah and Ellie in her "Minnie House" dress, as she calls it. These were their "costumes" for Halloween. We spent the evening at the Family Fiesta at church and had a great time.

One reason I hate kool-aid...

2008-10-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

Miss Independent wanted blue kool-aid instead of water. It was everywhere! Good excuse to clean out the fridge, I guess.

Ellie turns 2!

2008-10-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Ellie is now 2 years old! And what a bundle of joy she is! She is generally a pretty happy little girl, although we have our moments. I found it funny that the morning of her birthday she was upset about something and rolled around on the living room floor throwing a little fit. I thought to myself, "Welcome terrible two's!" I'm hoping she won't do that too often! She is actually a very good little helper and loves to follow her big brother around and do whatever he is doing. For all you older siblings out there, you know how annoying that can be. But most times they get along pretty well.
We had a birthday celebration last weekend with our extended family. Ellie was the star of the party and had fun entertaining the crowd. There are a couple of pictures below of the birthday girl in her birthday shirt and with her cake. Two of Ellie's favorite foods are hot dogs and pizza. So we grilled hot dogs for lunch and ate a pizza cake for dessert. Thanks to dad for decorating the cake, with some help from grandma. It was a fun party and Ellie had a great time!

Bowels?

2008-10-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

While riding in the van the other day AJ was talking with Micah about which letters were vowels. Micah came home to tell me that A, E, I, O, & U were "bowels". I don't think that's what AJ was teaching him, but sometimes things get lost in translation!

Lots of pics

2008-10-11T08:05:00.001-07:00

Here is an overload of pics of our first two weeks. Isaac is a great baby and we have all settled in pretty well. This next week will be the real test as I (Amy) am on my own without AJ or grandma here all day. Pray for us!!
Isaac had his 2 week visit yesterday and his weight is at 8lbs 7.5oz! Yea! We are so excited that he is eating well and growing just as he is supposed to. Praise the Lord!

Isaac Jonathan has arrived!

2008-09-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

Isaac Jonathan joined Team King on Friday, September 26th at 2:07pm. He was 7lbs 15oz and 20 inches long. That makes him our heaviest baby, and also our shortest! We brought him home on Sunday and everyone is settling in quite nicely. Micah and Ellie really are taken with him. This morning one of the first things that Micah did was go put Purell on his hands and sit next to me on the couch and ask to hold Isaac. Micah watched cartoons with Isaac in his lap. Occasionally we would catch him just watching Isaac. It's fun to see that he is such a proud big brother. Ellie doesn't pay too much attention to him unless he is crying. Then she gets a very concerned look on her face. She's pretty sympathetic and doesn't like to hear him cry. Also, if someone asks what the baby's name is, she answers "Baby Jesus". Pretty cute. All in all, we are doing well and have enjoyed our first 3 days as a family of five. It amazes us that no matter how much we love Micah and Ellie, we still have room to love little Isaac just as much. We feel so blessed to have him here!

Micah-ism

2008-09-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

I could fill a page (or even a book) with funny things that the kids say, but here is one that Micah told Miss Elisabeth this morning on the way to preschool: "Did you know that all Targets have popcorn and that all churches have crosses on them?" The important things in life, I guess.

Micah's sleep-over

2008-09-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

I forgot my camera! Arrgh! I realized this when I was in the car on the way to pick up Micah from a sleepover at his great-grandma's house. So I have no pictures to post, just stories to tell. Micah got to have a very special sleepover at great-grandma's (Mugs) house last night. Just for the fun of it! Mugs wanted to have him stay over and she had all sorts of fun activities for them to do. She bought Micah his very own tennis racket and new tennis balls and they got to play tennis last night and again this morning. Micah told me on the phone last night, "You know mom, I'm a pretty good tennis player." I watched him play this morning and he did a great job hitting the ball. And he had fun. They also watched a kids' football game last night and got to play at the park. As they were headed back inside they saw a snapping turtle, which Micah was very excited about. I was also told that "the water sparkled like jewels" referring to the creek that runs by the park at Mugs. This morning Micah got to have donuts, sausage, and a juice box for breakfast. They played hide-the-button (just what it sounds like, a game that AJ used to play with Mugs when he was a kid). They played tennis some more and when Ellie and I got there we played at the park for a while. Micah also got his choice of lunch and chose to pick up McDonald's and eat it back at Mugs' house. Then we headed home and he took a long nap! It was fun for AJ and I to see how much fun he had and to see that he was ready to go with no hesitation. Just a wave and a "see you later". He's growing up so fast!

Preschool

2008-09-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

So we have done a few things since going to the state fair. Obviously I have not been very good at updating this blog. We are busy preparing for baby #3 scheduled to arrive two weeks from tomorrow. At times I am wondering about the wisdom of having 3 children, but as AJ reminds me, it's too late to turn back now. We are slowly getting things ready...it seems that with baby #1 everything is ready and waiting months in advance, and with #3 we aren't quite as worried about having things all set to go. I have washed baby clothes and bottles and have the car seat ready (not in the car yet!). Believe it or not, we are still trying to figure out a name for this baby. We have a short list for both boys and girls names, but have not settled on anything just yet. We really want to have our minds made up before the time comes, otherwise I'm the type to settle for something just to have it done with. We've got two weeks, right? We are not quite out of time, just down to the wire!
Anyway, as you can tell from the title of this post, this is supposed to be about Micah's first day of preschool. He started his second year at Crossroads Preschool today and was ready to go. He has a new teacher, Mrs. Suderman, and the same assistant teacher as last year, Miss Ortmann. One of his best friends, Amara, is in his class this year and he is VERY excited about that. Hopefully they will find a good mix of playing together and also making new friends. He has school Tues and Thurs mornings, which should work out well since I have MOPS on Thurs mornings 3 times each month. We are looking forward to the year ahead and all of the fun things he will learn! Here are some pics from the morning.

The MN State Fair

2008-08-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

It's the end of summer and that means it is time for the State Fair. That is big news around our house and we really love heading out to the fair for a day and enjoying the sights, sounds, and mostly, the tastes! It worked out this year for us to go on opening day. The weather was great, although a little on the hot side, and the crowds weren't too bad. We were quite surprised to pull up to the park and ride at about 8:45am and see a very long line of people waiting for the free bus to the fair. We waited about 20 minutes until we were able to get on a bus (at least they had several running back and forth) and made it to the fairgrounds by about 9:30am. We started off at the Little Farm Hands exhibit where Micah was able to be a farmer for a short while. He milked the cows, fed the chickens, planted & harvested carrots, rode the tractor, and sold his goods at the market. With his proceeds he was able to buy a snack-size box of Golden Grahams. It is a fun exhibit to see the farming process from start to finish.
I can't tell you our exact route from there, but we explored several of the buildings and exhibits, saw a baby pig being born at the Miracle of Birth Center, rode the giant slide twice, found the bees, watched the end of the parade, saw fish, turtles, & snakes, watched robots, and ate several times. It was Thrifty Thursday so there were some deals going on and we had a state fair coupon book. Both helped us keep our costs down for the day. Plus Micah has been saving ALL YEAR for the state fair and he covered the costs for the giant slide rides. Seriously, every time he found a penny or was given any money, he would put it into his "state fair fund". It was a good lesson in saving and we hope to expand it to other areas.
All in all, it was a great day. We were at the fair for 5 1/2 hrs, which is longer than we thought any of us would last. But the kids were great and had lots of fun. It will have to last us until next year!

Swimming!

2008-08-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

We have loved the last couple of weeks and the warm weather that we have had. The kids and I have spent lots and lots of time at the Crystal Pool and both the kids are getting to be quite the water lovers. Micah recently finished two weeks of swimming lessons. It was his first year and he was in Level 1. I was a little worried that 10 days of lessons would get to be too much for him and that he would get bored, but he LOVED every minute of it. His teacher was fabulous and she kept the kids having so much fun. They did have a lesson and a half of bad weather, so they learned about water safety in the locker rooms. Micah did pass to Level 2 and he is convinced that he can swim in the kiddie pool (for about 3 seconds). He has become much more brave in the water and spends a lot of time with his head underneath the water. Unfortunately, he has a brave little sister who likes to do everything big brother does. At the beginning of the summer she would sit contentedly next to me at the edge of the pool and play. Now she is off and running and will keep walking until water is coming in her mouth.
Here is a video clip of Micah going off the diving board.

MICAH'S FIRST TWINS GAME

2008-07-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

Micah was really excited to go to his first Minnesota Twins game...needless to say Dad was pretty excited too. Here is a picture of Micah outside the dome.

The first thing he asked for was a hot dog and popcorn. So we each got a hot dog and Micah got a bag of popcorn that he almost finished all by himself. Here is Micah enjoying his first ball park hot dog.

And here he is watching the game and eating some popcorn and more popcorn and more popcorn and more, well you get the idea.

Here we are on our way back to the car. He was tired and wanted me to give him a ride on my shoulders the entire walk back to the car (3/4 of a mile while it was 87 degrees and humid) but he was happy!
When a pitcher goes 6 innings in baseball they call it a quality start. I was shocked that we made it to the 6th inning but Micah made his first quality start and we left at the top of the 7th.

Free, free, free!

2008-07-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

So we love free stuff at our house. AJ, the kids, and I ran some errands this morning and realized on the way home that we had not spent a penny on our outing (except, of course, gas money which adds up fast nowadays!). Our first stop was at the Twins Pro Shop to purchase tickets for AJ and Micah to go the Twins game on Sunday. We had coupons for 2 free tickets from a previous meal-deal at Applebee's, so our out-of-pocket cost for the tickets was a whopping $0.
Next we went to Northwestern Bookstore where the kids are a part of the Summer Reading Program. They each were able to pick out several prizes from the prize bucket for the books that we have read so far this summer. They were very excited about their new trinkets. We looked around at NW Bookstore for a while, but again our total cost was $0.
Our final stop was at the Verizon store. AJ had some phone questions and a coupon for a free car charger for his phone. Again, no cost to us! Now some would say that it was a little silly, but we really got a kick out of our FREE outing. Anyway, I'm not sure if or when that will happen again, but it was fun.
And one more free thing to throw in there for good measure...we won 4 free tickets to Charlotte's Web at the Old Log Theater for tomorrow morning. AJ and I will take Micah and his friend Amara to see the show while Ellie stays home with great-grandma (a FREE baby-sitter).
OK, enough already.

Signs of summer...

2008-07-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some signs of summer...

Corn on the cob...or corn on the cobcakes, as the case may be. I saw this idea in a Family Fun mag and thought it was so cute, so I gave it a shot. It's cupcakes with white frosting and jelly beans. You can actually melt and shape a yellow starburst to look like a pat of butter on top, but I didn't have any starbursts. Micah liked this way better than the real corn on the cob!

A summer garden update-we have red, edible raspberries! Micah got one yesterday and we picked 3 more today. The bushes have lots of berries on them, so if nothing else eats them first we should get a handful a day or so. Yea!
Micah, Ellie and the neighbor girls waiting for AJ to put on the big fireworks show. We bought just a few "legal in MN" fireworks and lit them off before bedtime tonight. Good thing the kids know nothing of what real fireworks are like or this just wouldn't cut it. However, they loved what we had and thought the sparkles and popping were great.

The B-I-B-L-E

2008-07-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

The most requested bedtime song is The B-i-b-l-e. Usually we sing one time through just the regular version, then the 2nd time through we sing the song as quiet as possible and yell Bible! at the end as loud as possible. Here are the kiddos singing for us:

Ready for the pool...

2008-07-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

Here's Ellie, all ready for a swim. She loves to get all her accessories together and show them off. Earlier today she insisted on bringing her purse with her to the corner grocery store. She slings it up onto her shoulder and away she goes. Several people at the store commented on her pretty purse and she gave them big smiles. She is developing quite the personality (with a bit of the terrible two's coming on!).

PTL Moments

2008-06-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

So we have had a few remarkable "Praise the Lord" moments in the past couple of days. First, after much searching, I found my cell phone....in a jacket pocket that had just gone through the wash. AJ was very optimistic about it and sure enough, after letting it dry out overnight it still works! Praise the Lord that we didn't have to get a new one.
Secondly, Ellie took a tumble out of her crib yesterday at nap time. She was standing at the side of her crib crying and flipped right over the side. Praise the Lord she walked away with just a small bruise on her head. We moved the crib mattress down to the bottom, so it shouldn't happen again.
And finally, Micah also fell out of his bed last night. We took his safety railing off last week and he has done great, but last night at about 10:30 we heard a crash. He had rolled off, yet hardly woke up and didn't even remember it this morning. He has a captain's bed, so it is a little higher than the standard kid's bed. Praise the Lord for a soft landing and a sound sleeper! God is good!

3rd Annual Cousins Week

2008-06-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

The 3rd annual cousins week has officially come and gone. The kids and I spent last week in Bismarck, ND with grandma, grandpa, aunts and cousins. On Father's Day, my sister from WI and her two kids swung through Mpls and we all rode together to Bismarck. We had a great week with fabulous weather and only one trip to the ER. Not bad for having 8 kids ages 16mths to 9yrs together (including 3 4-yr-old boys!). We went to a few different parks, played in the pool and sprinklers, made pine cone bird feeders, painted t-shirts, ate lots of snacks (thanks grandma!), made lots of messes, stayed up late watching movies and eating popcorn, made new friends, spent time on the farm, bottle-fed the calf, rode the 4-wheeler, sat in the tractor, and had lots and lots of fun. The kids really had a great week and enjoyed the change of routine. We were all pretty beat by the time we got home and it's been good to settle back into our home, beds, and routines. And of course it's been great to be back with dad again. The kids spent the first few hours we were at home wrestling with him and chasing him around the house. It was fun to watch. Here are some pics of the week.

What our kids do for fun...

2008-05-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

Over the long holiday weekend the kids have been having fun playing outside with friends and in their new sandbox. But here are a couple of pictures of what happens when they have to much time on their hands or it is raining outside.

Here is a picture of a Boy and his dog

and here is a picture of a Cute little girl who just turned 19 months old

and here is the aftermath when they come together.

Each morning the kids have room time. Some times we let them go in the same room and play because they have so much fun together. This morning they were having their room time and it was very quiet. All of the sudden Amy says "Oh no, I can smell it out here!" When she opened the door to Ellie's room it was all hazy from the baby powder that had been dumped out. This is one of those moments where you want to teach your kids a lesson about how we don't make messes... but it is rather hard to do effectively when you cannot stop laughing.

Lazarus

2008-05-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

This week during our family devotional time we read the story about Lazarus and then we acted it out. The kids loved it and I think really understood the story by making it interactive. Here are pics of AJ and Micah playing the role of Lazarus.

Micah's prayer

2008-05-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

Here is Micah's new mealtime prayer. He learned it at preschool this year and says it almost every time we eat. It's pretty precious. We try to make him change up his prayer every now and then so he doesn't get into just a pattern of saying the same thing over and over as his prayer.

Garden?

2008-05-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

OK, let the games begin. I'm taking bets on whether or not I will actually get any produce from the garden I just planted today. I have more of a brown thumb than a green one, but I really like the idea of having a garden. It's kind of a running joke that I'm really just planting it for the rabbits. The transplanted rhubarb from last year came back (yea!) and the transplanted raspberries from two years ago are doing alright. It's the rest of the veggies that are quite iffy. I planted zucchini squash, pumpkins, carrots, peas, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley and some sunflowers just for fun. I also planted onions around the edge of the garden. I read online (so it must be true) that rabbits don't like the smell of onions and so they won't cross over them to get to the other veggies. Any and all prayer is much appreciated!

Daddy's shoes

2008-05-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

One of Ellie's favorite games is to try on EVERYONE'S shoes. Yesterday I cleaned up shoes about 4 times. Here are some pics of her in daddy's shoes. And a pic of AJ and Micah that I thought was cute!

Trip to Como Zoo

2008-05-09T17:45:00.001-07:00

Praise the Lord for beautiful mornings at the zoo! Micah's preschool had a field trip to Como Zoo this week and AJ, Ellie, and I met the bus there and tagged along. It was such a nice, sunny morning and it was a fun time. Micah loved it all, from the bus ride (through the tunnel!) to all the animals and then the flowers and gardens. In hindsight we should have packed a picnic lunch and stayed longer, but we enjoyed the short time that we were there. Ellie rode along great in the stroller and didn't really get to see too many animals...we were moving too fast and there were too many kids in front of her! She didn't seem to mind. Micah told us that his favorite part was watching the monkeys. They are always quite entertaining. For AJ and I , the funniest part of the day was how Micah wouldn't leave one of his little friend's mom. She was an official chaperon for the trip, and he would not let go of her hand. She had her own son on one side and Micah on the other all morning. AJ kept asking him if he wanted to hang out with us, but he would just shake his head and stick with her. It was so funny! We were just glad that he was enjoying the time at the zoo. The kids were exhausted and took great naps when we got home. We plan to go back in July with our group from church.

Ellie at 18mths

2008-05-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

Elliana has turned 18mths old and she is going on about 4! She is into everything and tries to do everything that big brother does. Her favorite new trick right now is climbing up into chairs. We often find her at the kitchen table drinking out of someone's glass or at the computer trying to type. Also, she loves the phone. The play phones don't quite cut it anymore and she is always after my cell phone or the cordless phone. We are going to end up paying for a phone call to China one of these days.
She recently got over a week long episode of being sick with some sort of nasty bug. It was a week of many baths and many loads of laundry. Fortunately she has recovered quite well.
Here are her stats from her 18mth doctor appt: Height 32.5in (75%) and weight 24lb 11oz (60%). She had only gained 4oz since her 1yr visit, but no one seemed concerned about it.
She's a bit of a picky eater, although she is a great snacker! She eats a lot of fruits, but no veggies. Her favorite foods are jelly sandwiches, pizza, hot dogs, yogurt, applesauce, Cheerios, goldfish, and granola bars. We keep trying new things and sometimes are surprised...the other day she downed 2 small pieces of peanut butter toast!
She is generally pretty happy, and still likes to snuggle with mom a lot. She loves to be outside and swinging is her favorite activity. She loves being in the stroller and going for walks and pushing her little scooter around. She could read all day and is continually bringing out books for us to read over and over again. She also likes to color and draw. She loves to take her shoes and socks off and then 10 minutes later ask us to put them back on.
She is a joy and we are loving every minute with her. We are starting to learn that girls definitely have a higher pitch to their scream when she starts to throw a mini-temper tantrum! She is also much more sensitive than her brother was and much more determined. Hopefully she will adjust well to the role of big sister in a few months. We love you, Ells!

Micah & Amara

2008-04-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

One of Micah's best friend's is Amara. The two of them love to play together and are always up to something. Next year they will be in the same preschool classroom. We are already praying for whoever their teacher will be! They were in AWANA Cubbies together this past year and if Amara didn't make it to one of the meetings, then Micah said that there was no one else to play with (only 50+ other little kids there)! Here are a couple of pics of the two of them.

Leaky eyes

2008-04-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

"My eyes are leaking." Said by Micah as he stood next to me while I cut onions.

Mmmm....butter

2008-03-27T12:14:00.001-07:00

She is so fast and can get that butter out of the fridge before I even know what's happening. As with most things, she is very persistent about it!

Easter egg "hunt"

2008-03-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

Micah has been looking forward to hunting for Easter eggs for a very long time (since, like, last Easter!). Once we hit March I let him take out our plastic eggs and Easter baskets and we have played endless games of hiding and finding Easter eggs all over the house. I'm not sure why this is so entertaining to him, but he LOVES it. On Saturday we went to church for the real Easter egg "hunt". I'm not sure how much of a "hunt" it was since the eggs were essentially just scattered all over everywhere. Nonetheless, he had a great time singing and watching the entertainment before the egg gathering. As you can tell from the pics, there were eggs everywhere. We got such a kick out of it because he could have just cleared out an area of eggs, but he would pick up one egg here, then another over there, then that one in the middle of the snow he had to go after. But, again, he had fun and we enjoyed watching him have fun.

"Pretty girl"

2008-02-25T13:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was taking Ellie's 16 month pictures and AJ starts talking to Ellie and asking her "Who's the pretty girl?". We both cracked up at her response and luckily she did it again for the camera. Pretty funny!

Ellie's new hair

2008-02-23T11:31:00.000-08:00

So we tried this baby Rogaine and, man, is it powerful stuff. But now our baby has some hair! Check it out!

Ellie's new shoes

2008-02-15T13:26:00.001-08:00

There were new shoes for Ellie in her Valentine's gift from Gram. Listen carefully and you can hear them squeak!

Visit to the doctor

2008-02-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

Both kids were at the doctor today for well visits and were declared healthy. Micah is 41.5 inches tall (75%) and 37 lbs (50%). I told him before we went in that he didn't have to get any shots today, but I was mistaken. Poor guy had his hopes up then ended up getting a shot anyway. I think he shed more tears in anticipation of it then during/after the actual shot.

Ellie is 32 inches tall (90%) and 24 lbs 7 oz (80%). So she is pretty solid, but not off the charts like we expected. She has a tiny little head (the weight is all in that tummy and those thighs!) at 18 inches (45%). She had to get 4 shots today and loudly disagreed with the whole process.

We daily praise the Lord for healthy kids. What a blessing they are!

Micah turns four!

2008-01-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

We can't even believe it, but Micah has turned four! He was very into his birthday this year and enjoyed every minute of it. He had a very busy birthday. His cousins had spent the night so when they all got up they shared a special treat of donut holes that AJ had picked up just for Micah's birthday. They played for awhile and then after dropping cousins and Ellie off at different friend's houses, Micah and I went to preschool. It was so much fun for me to share his day at school. I got to hang out with him and do different activities. At the end of preschool we shared a snack and Micah got to share with the class about his family and his birthday. Then we came home and hung out with dad for a bit before the big trip to Red Robin to have supper. Micah had been wanting to see "Red" (pictured above) for some time and it just happened that he shows up on Tuesday nights. Micah could hardly contain himself. The only downer of the day was the tummy ache after he ate too much of an ice cream sundae at Red Robin! Overall the day was great and Micah wore a smile and bubbled all day long.

Winter day fun

2008-01-21T07:58:00.001-08:00

A few winter indoor activities to pass the time away...

Ellie at 14 months

2007-12-31T10:33:00.001-08:00

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

2007-12-31T10:17:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-09T18:25:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

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

2007-10-30T05:37:00.001-07:00

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

2007-10-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

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

Happy Birthday Ellie!

2007-10-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

Wonderful husband

2007-10-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-24T10:24:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-09T13:21:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-09-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-25T12:26:00.001-07:00

Celebrity look-a -likes

2007-08-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

Summer vacation

2007-08-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-02T19:02:00.001-07:00

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

2007-07-21T18:09:00.001-07:00

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

2007-07-21T17:58:00.001-07:00

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

2007-06-21T19:25:00.002-07:00

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

2007-06-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-06-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-06-06T06:12:00.001-07:00

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.

2007-05-24T13:29:00.001-07:00

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

2007-05-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

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!

Mill City Museum

2007-04-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

FREE!! I love that word. We got free passes to the Mill City Museum from the Hennepin County Library's Museum Adventure Pass. AJ took the day off and we headed to check it out. We weren't sure what to expect and if it would be over Micah's head, but he had a GREAT time. There were lots of hands-on activities for him to do. The pics show him sending logs down the river and pushing a water turbine. He also ground and sifted wheat to make flour and rolled out dough in the kitchen area. He didn't want to leave even though we were an hour past lunchtime. There was a fun "Flour Tower" ride that gave the history of the flour mills in Minneapolis. AJ and I had a great time as well and found it to be very interesting.

Ellie at 5 mths

2007-03-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

Ellie is now 5 mths old! We can hardly believe it. Thanks to her friend Avery for sharing the adorable pink dress for Ellie's dedication. And thanks to Mimi for Ellie's dedication bling. Mimi made a couple of bracelets just for Ellie and they are adorable! Ellie is growing bigger every day and is constantly changing. She is loving her rice cereal and has now tried bananas as well. She gave a few funny faces to that at first, but has grown accustomed to them. Not sure what we'll try next.....maybe pureed peas. Mmmmm good! She also rolled over this week for the first time! She went from her back to her tummy....and then didn't know what to do next! She can't get back to her back yet, so that's the next challenge.

2007-03-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

Here is are some pics of the family. Micah loves that Ellie and she loves him right back. Aren't they cute together? The family pic is from the Sunday of Ellie's dedication. It was a great day with lots of aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and great-grandmas there. Ellie did great and didn't cry in front of the church (which was my fear, of course!).

Ellie update

2007-03-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of new pics of Ellie. She loves her daddy and saves her best smiles for him. She also adores Micah and thinks he is the best big brother around. She is always watching him and he earns quite a few smiles as well. She is really into grabbing things and everything goes into her mouth. We can't believe that she is almost 5mths old! She just recently started rice cereal--what a messy adventure! She is ever so close to rolling over, but can't get everything to cooperate just yet. We are enjoying her more and more every day!

Ellie at 4mths

2007-02-25T18:38:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of Ellie at 4 months of age. It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone! She is growing and changing every day. She is becoming more and more fun and is developing her own personality. She still does not enjoy sleeping much--nights are pretty good, but she has a strong aversion to naps. She has her 4 mth doctor appt this week, so we will get all of her stats there (height, weight, etc).

Hanging out with dad...

2007-02-25T18:28:00.000-08:00

Micah is dad's little buddy! Here are a couple of recent shots of them together. Micah loves to do special activities with dad and there are certain things that only he and dad can do together--mom and Ellie not allowed! Their favorite thing to do is "tickle and wrestle" in Micah's bedroom. They also will often run errands together or hang out in the garage or outside together. At bedtime we talk about what Micah's favorite part of the day was. Today he said his favorite part was building a snow fort with dad. He likes to be wherever AJ is and talks about when he gets bigger he can go to work with dad. Most things that we say he can't do now he says he can do "when he gets bigger". He's a bunch of fun!

Children's Museum

2007-02-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

We made a trip to the Children's Museum today with Tim, Cathy, and William Fischer (friends from church). It was great because the 3rd Sunday of the month is free admission. However, it was a ZOO! Everybody loves free stuff and the place was packed. Micah had fun and elbowed his way in to play with the exhibits. There was a special exhibit with Bob the Builder, so he enjoyed that. Above are a few pics from the day.

55 degrees....

2007-02-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

Was I just dreaming of a warm spring day? Not quite--that was the actual temp in our house when we woke up yesterday morning. Now we are all about cutting costs, but not quite to that extent. Our furnace had broken down on us on a very cold February day in MN. Praise the Lord for gas fireplaces and friends with warm homes! Finally, by about 7:30pm, our furnace was running again. We spent most of the day in the basement with the fireplace running and a blanket covering the door. It was very actually very cozy, and we were lucky to be able to do that. Thanks to all of you who offered to open your home to us if we would have had another night without heat. We were thrilled to crawl into our own warm beds!

Not again....

2007-02-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

I know this is quite unbecoming for a little princess, but seriously, it happens almost every day. Ellie is the queen of blowouts! I hate to put her in her cute little pink outfits because this is what always seems to happen! Thank goodness for good stain remover! And yes, she actually is wearing a diaper and it still seems to work its way out. A few nights ago, right before bed, we did 3 diaper changes in less than 10 minutes as she kept filling them! Sorry, enough potty talk for now....