Ready for the pool...

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

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

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...

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mmmm....butter

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"

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"

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

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

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

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!

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

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