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!

Mill City Museum

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

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.

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

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

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...

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

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....

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....

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....

Who's who #2?

Here's more pictures of the two kids for comparison. Obviously, they no longer look very similar. Micah is above and is from when he was about 2 months old. Ellie is below at about 3 mths old. Check out those cheeks!

Grandpa....

Ellie getting some love from Grandpa...

Micah's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Micah's 3rd birthday yesterday with a family party. Grandma and grandpa and cousins came from North Dakota and the whole King gang was here as well. Micah had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it. He is such an entertainer and is always in constant motion. The train cake was a collaborative effort by mom, dad, and grandma. Micah thought it was cool and it was the first thing he wanted everyone to see as they came in the door. Thanks to Uncle Russ for the crown and cape. Micah had the crown on before he even got out of his room this morning and the cape was on soon after. His birthday is actually tomorrow, so we will celebrate with just the four of us in our family.

Marshmallow Towers

Here is Micah and dad building a marshmallow tower during a family devotional time last week. We discussed the Tower of Babel and the importance of having God as a foundation to build our lives upon. Micah is starting to get more and more concepts and it is fun to do these types of object lessions with him. Of course, he just wanted to eat the marshmallows, which we enjoyed after the story time.

This week we signed Micah up for preschool for next fall. I can't believe that he is old enough for preschool already! We think that it will be great for him and that he will really enjoy the interaction with other kids. He loves to be out and about and sometimes gets bored hanging out with mom and Ellie. Almost every day he asks, "Mom, where are going today?" His favorite activity is to run errands with dad, while mom and Ellie stay at home. The bank is usually the requested location to go as they always give him a sucker.

Our Little Princess!

Check out our little princess! This was the happiest she had been all day, so I think she likes her boa! She can be quite the charmer when she wants to be and already has dad wrapped around her little fingers. We really enjoy the happy moments like these--they make all the many fussy times so much more bearable!

The Kids

The Kids... Here is a picture of Miach at Christmas in Duluth. He did not get to take a nap until we made him slow down from opening presents and watch a video. Before you knew it he was OUT COLD. He slept for about and hour and then went right back to being his normal old high energy Micah.















Here is a picture of Ellie in her Christmas dress at 2 months old. She is a great little princess and sleeps well at night but hates to take naps on her own. She really likes to be held during the day. We will post more Christmas pictures soon.

Who's who?

So who is who? Actually the kids don't look alike enough to get them confused, but they do have some similarities (other than the sleeper!). Right now it looks like Ellie will have blue eyes and darker hair, while Micah has brown eyes and blond hair. But Ellie still may change eye color and hair color. I'm hoping she keeps the blue eyes, but we'll see. Speaking of Ellie, she's fussing and I've got to run! P.S. The top one is Micah and the bottom one is Ellie

Micah arrested?

Micah had an exciting Saturday last week. He spent a few minutes visiting grandpa and taking a look at his cool police car. As you can see, he even got to sit in the back. Saturday evening as Micah was praying he thanked God for Grandpa's car and the lights and the siren. It was all he could talk about for several days. He now has pictures of the visit hanging in his room. A very memorable experience! AJ and I hope and pray that this is the only time he will ever sit in the back of a police car!!

Micah and Ellie Dressed up

Here are the kiddos all dressed up! We decided that we needed to get some pictures of Micah out here. He is a great big brother and loves baby Ellie a little too much sometimes. He is getting better about asking before he touches her and can be quite gentle with her. He did bite her finger the other day and she protested with a loud cry. He has not quite learned the art of lying (thankfully) and when asked what happened he said, "I bit her". No damage was done and I'm sure there will be many more incidents to come!

Ellie had her 2 week check-up today and she is doing great! She is up to 7lbs 4oz, so we are thrilled that she is eating well and was declared healthy. We are truly grateful for her health and praise the Lord that we all have transitioned quite well to having her here.

That's about all for now. The plumber will be here shortly. Yesterday while doing laundry we had water back up in the basement. After cleaning it up twice, I had to stop doing laundry. Hopefully the plumber will be able to fix it quickly and we can all have clean clothes again!