Ellie's cast

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

Ellie's birthday

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

Eating Cake

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

Happy Birthday Ellie!

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

Micah's Tuff Guy Dance

Wonderful husband

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

Ellie eating

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

Ellie at 11 mths

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

First day of preschool

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

Go Vikings!

Ellie's new chair from Gram.

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



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

Micah's prayer

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

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

She's crawling....

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

Celebrity look-a-likes

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

AJ's celebrity look-a-likes

Celebrity look-a -likes

Summer vacation

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

Ellie at 9mths

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

Fenway, Shea and Yankee Stadium Baseball Tour

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

Long Time No Post

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

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

Kids at home

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

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