Family Christmas

We were sure busy this christmas . . . after opening presents christmas morning, we headed to Wisconsin to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa with the tractors, and family, and then at 3pm, headed to St Cloud to Grandma and Grandpa with the choo choos and Troy's brother from PA for the first time in 17 years! We couldn't have asked for better timing - the roads were basically cleared just in time for our travels. God was certainly answering prayers. We are so very blessed, the boys got so many gifts, I think we could supply 5 other households!

Christmas Eve and Morning

What a wonderful christmas - I just have the most wonderful life! We spent christmas eve with our family - went to church (and enjoyed a live nativity, animals and all), then we picked up chinese for mommy and daddy (3rd year tradition), made the boys dinosaur nuggets (their favorite food), then enjoyed playing outside in the piles of snow, making a snowman and throwing lots of snow at daddy!!! At last we came in an opened gifts - the boys were so much fun - brennan actually got most excited when he opened up a shoe box, and immediately said "new shoos", and still got excited when it was a jersey, and responded with "vikings"!!! Kobe was elated with every gift, and when we tucked him in, he talked about how excited he was for stockings from santa because "you get all the stuff I like, treats and chapstick"!! Christmas morning they were elated over their gifts from "santa", and my sister shari joined us for another tradition of carmel rolls (yes, I LOVE traditions, almost obsessively)!!!

MOA

We've spent a lot of time at the mall of america lately - a great place to run around in the winter time, coat free!!! Every week they have toddler tuesdays, so there is always some kind of free event, which is really nice. We've gone a lot with our wonderful friend jenni, and her two girls, which are the same age as my boys. This past tuesday it was just the boys and I, and they had the teddy bear band - the boys had great fun dancing and jumping and coloring. They actually even did really well while mommy got in a little christmas shopping in. It probably helped that a lady was handing out free chocolate suckers - let's just say a face and hands covered in brown chocolate is frowned on at Macy's, but hey, it kept them entertained!!!

Preschool christmas concert

Kobe's second preschool christmas concert was today! It was so cute - all the kids participated much more in their second year, and it was 12 minutes instead of 10!!! All the hand motions made the songs so much more adorable! And of course we got a picture of Kobe and his "fiance" Samantha as he announced they were going to marry when they get older, and Samantha told us today that she kissed Kobe. I'm not sure what her mom is teaching her??? J/K julie. :)

annual tree cutting

Christmas 2009 - what a blast we're going to have this year. We kicked it off by cutting down our 13 foot christmas tree! Pretty slim choices this year - but at least you can see all the ornaments - front and back standing in one spot! Every tree needs a home, right? As you can see in the pics - the ladder was a popular item. After Kobe got done hanging his ornaments (all in one spot as high as he could reach with the ladder), mommy had to spread them out a little. Brennan loves to walk by the tree and just give an ornament a little nudge to make it go swinging. That would be a two year old for ya. Merry christmas everyone.

PRE preschool???

Yep, that's brennan - not sure about going to school without mom. Three weeks ago already he started a program called Bright Beginnings at our church. It's for 2-3 year olds the year before preschool. He was a little shy the first day, but never cried, and yesterday, he took off, running into the room without even a goodbye to mommy. My baby is growing up - what am I going to do when neither of them need me??? Next monday is his special day - stay tuned.

first time bowling

Okay - here I go again, trying to catch up the blog - sorry in advance. The weekend after thanksgiving Kobe and brennan got to attempt bowling - it was really cute, and brennan lasted almost the whole game. Luckily I actually got a few more points than my 5 year old. whew - that won't last long I'm sure! We followed bowling by going to the hollidazzle parade downtown minneapolis - normally we're buying hot cocoa to stay warm in the frigid weather - this year at 40 degrees, the boys ate supper outside waiting on the curb for the parade. It felt different, but we'd take that any year!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

Above: Kobe and Brennan "wrestling" Carter, their 6'7" heavyweight college scholarship wrestler from southwest state. Below: Brennan pinned Kobe in their wrestling match.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. Here's a few pics of the events at our thanksgiving! We are all so blessed with everything we need, not even thinking how or where we'll get our next meal, or where we'll sleep and stay warm. Thank you Lord, we are so grateful for all our blessings.

Baby Sister's Baby??

Wow, I'm so excited my baby sister Adea is having a baby. Yes, that does make me feel old! I hosted a baby shower for her a few weeks ago. It all went well, and was so much fun (diaper cakes are just as fun to make) - she received a lot of necessities, which was awesome for her. The baby decided not to let them find out the sex (they were hoping not to paint the currently pink room) - you gotta love God's humor!!! We can't wait to meet you Baby Sell.

Halloween 2009

How nice to have halloween on a saturday! We had a great day, we ate "spiders" for lunch, then carved our pumpkins, and had "mummies" for supper. The boys are at such a fun age for trick or treating - Kobe was "warehouse mouse" from the disney show Imagination Movers, and Brennan was an "eeeeeeh" fireman - they both loved it, and so did mommy! We hit everyone in our neighborhood, and then hopped in the car and visited some friends homes, and over to burnsville to visit John Kline's home and a couple of troy's other co-workers. We even had a surprise visit from a witch and ghost which turned out to be Troy's parents!! Our church did a really neat thing too - the kids had to "tithe" their candy on sunday - so we counted out one tenth of the candy - and it was amazing what a little amount it was compared to how much we were to keep - it was a good lesson for the parents too. :)

Brennan

Okay, okay, this is the last one, and I promise I'll try to keep up. Just thought it time to do another update on Brennan. He's doing great with talking, he definitely gets his messages accross, and rarely do we not understand what he's saying (which is frustrating on both ends). His latest is saying OH, in a high pitch voice after you tell him anything, as if he finally understands! It's so cute! He's saying more sentances, and doing more repeating on his own. I can't even keep up with the list of words he's saying, but my favorite is still shee-pa (sheep), and his big one is ba-nana! Other than talking, he loves to be on stage at meal time (and will do anything to make his brother laugh, even if it gets him in trouble), he's a whiz at puzzles, and can color an entire color book in a matter of minutes. He also is really into lining things up - he lines the matchbox cars the entire width of the kitchen, right on the edge of the carpeting (yes, we have that many cars/trucks). And he will do anything his brother requests, which Kobe loves, and sometimes uses to his advantage (picking up bugs, frogs to put in Kobe's bucket). Kobe's latest is playing with his toy monkey - he has a pacifier, and a bottle, and I got specific instructions on what to do while he was at preschool. This was last week (ie feed him the bottle at 11:30). Today he brought the monkey with in the car again on the way to preschool, but I think he gave the instructions to brennan, because every time we went into a store, brennan said "ooh ooh aah aah", he wanted the monkey to come too! Seriously, and I don't have girls?? Good night.

Clown parade

Last year was the pumpkin parade at Kobe's preschool, and this year they decided to be clowns - they were adorable. Each costume was uniquely made by each preschooler. I just love his preschool!

charlie brown

My husband requested I blog this picture of the boys watching the annual "great pumpkin patch charlie brown". He is such a good dad - always remembering these types of things and making it fun with popcorn and koolaid (but lets be honest, he enjoys it as much or more than they do). :)

apple orchard fun

So last weekend we took a trip to an apple orchard which also has a corn maze, a straw maze for the kids, apple shooting, hill of hay, apple cider press demonstration, hay rides, kids rides, a petting zoo, and a neat playground with a rolling slide! OH, and of course lots of sampling!!! We had a lot of fun, and could have stayed much longer, but my cousin met us there and we got to have chase/molly saturday night - they all played so well, troy and I could have left the house, and they wouldn't have even noticed! Can you believe we even got 4 kids bathed, dressed, and out the house ON TIME for a 9am church service?? Whew!

pumpkin patch

A couple weekends ago grandma with the choo choos (troy's mom) and the boys and I went to a nearby fruit/veggie stand which also sold pumpkins, and had a putting zoo. Brennan is into anything with animals, so he loved it - we got some gourds and baby pumpkins and Kobe hauled them for grandma in the wheel burrow. It doesn't take much to entertain them at this age. Thanks for the tip heather. :)

Baby Jett

Baby Jett is still with us and the boys love him so much - Brennan wakes up every day mon-friday and the first thing he says is baby no? (wondering if baby jett is here yet) We've all grown pretty attached to him, in fact on wednesday morning brennan actually cried because I explained baby jett was spending a few days with his grandma. :( The boys both fight over who can help with baby jett - getting a diaper, burper, and most of all who gets to put his nuk in! Yesterday we had another prayer answered, Jett's mom got her job extended thru the end of the year, which means baby jett gets to keep coming to our house to "play". Mommy is the most elated, after just completing an online job app, I realized it's been over 7 years since I've interviewed for a job - scarey! Talking about prayer - brennan has now added not just baby jett to his prayer list, but baby's daddy too!

Papa's 6D???

Wow, has it really been over a month since I put anything on the blog? - wow, how time flies - so here goes, I'm going to bombard you again with posts. This is my way of apoligizing ahead of time! :)

My dad turned 60 this year - wow! I got the priviledge of making the cake. Yes, my dad is a crop farmer - corn and beans - need I say more? Oh, and Kobe suggested the 6D, since grandpa was sixty (sounded like 6D to him).

Brennan Update

Just thought I'd give an update on brennan . . . Brennan's really coming along with his words - I just counted the words I have listed on the blog and it's almost 40 words, so I'm sure he's well over that. Not bad considering he's only had 1 speech therapy appt. He's also doing lots of 2-3 word sentances. For example the other day he hollared up the stairs "Obe, mama No!" - he was telling Kobe that I said no, he couldn't use his ride on as a skateboard on the kitchen floor!!! He's also doing excellent on separating at church and also at "school" - he started ECFE classes on monday mornings, we had our 3rd class today, he loves it - this morning he asked about Kobe, I said he went to school, and he said "no, me". It's great to get that one on one time with him, and they are so good about having creative projects, sensory things, and cute songs to help them learn. Best of all he loves to snuggle (as you can see in the pic above), and give kisses on our cheeks.

Kobe's 5 kid party

Seriously, another party?? Kobe had a Bug birthday party with all his little buddies on friday. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of kids - 12 kids total (and 2 more still in the oven)! We had a bug hunt, and ate bugs for lunch, followed by dirt/worm cupcakes. Thank you all for bringing your kids, and for being so good about pitching in to help. You are all wonderful friends.

Kobe is 5!!?!!

Yes, I cannot believe my little boy is five already!! Kobe had a great family birthday party on saturday (see below), we ate lots of food, and had some tasty race track/monster truck cake! On Sunday, his actual birthday (above), we took him mini golfing and than ate at the Rainforest Cafe in the MOA per his request. We sat right under the apes (aka uncle rick) and the boys both loved it and behaved sooo well. Kobe absolutely crashed that night. Can you believe yesterday he said "mommy I have too many toys, I don't need anymore" . . . so I said what about your friends party - he held the same position - until . . . we went to Toys R Us today, yeah - let's just say I had to remind HIM what he said.

Kobe's first day of Preschool #2

Wednesday Kobe went to his first day of second year preschool, that means he gets to go mon/wed/friday - 3 days in one week, he is sooo excited, and sooo ready for it. He's definitely getting bored at home, he needs to be challenged and misses his friends. We are so excited he has the same class/teachers as last year and even a lot of the same kids - especially his best buds samantha, evie, and Zach.

So I dropped him off at school, and with no hesitation he jumped out of the car, he new exactly what to do and where to go from last year. Mommy, on the other hand was sure she wouldn't cry this year, but sure enough, the tears came - I think I just realized how grown up he's become, how much he already doesn't need me - I know, I know, only more of that to come. At least I still have Brennan, for awhile . . . speaking of Brennan, it is now 2:45, and he is refusing to nap for the first time ever, and daddy won't be home until after bedtime - it's going to be a long one.

Milwaukee Trip

Last weekend Troy and I were able to sneak away to Milwaukee for a co-workers wedding. They had a beautiful reception in "the domes" - one was beautiful flowers, one was tropical plants, and the middle was the dining/dance area, it was wonderful. Milwaukee is a beautiful town - I never knew! It's right on Lake Michigan, so we were able to walk for miles while watching sailboats, yachts, bikes, paddleboats and even a school for sailing. Not to mention the beautiful art museum on the lake that is a modern design resembling a ship! We also found a neat market downtown milwaukee. After the wedding we attended a Brewers game in the well designed Miller stadium thanks to my uncle and wonderful new girlfriend Lori and heidi had her first tailgating experience, and loved it (especially with Lori picking the real italian deli salads)! Troy and I had a wonderful weekend, but the best part was arriving home just before bed and having 2 excited boys with gigantic hugs just for us!

Bye bye binky No more Nuk . . .

Bye Bye Binky . . No more Nuk . . Put the Passy in the trashy!!  Yep, that's what we're singing at our house.  We decided when brennan was 1 to wait until he was 18 mo and then till he was 2 - well that time had come, and we finally had no events for a couple weekends, so it was time.  Brennan was a champ - he cried for about a half hour the first day at nap time, and never cried again - I know, I am very blessed!   There has been a lot going on with Brennan lately - my baby is growing up!  We have had a lot of struggles with attachment, and 3 weeks ago, after we had been gone from our church for 5 weeks, he finally let me leave him in "sunday school" without crying the entire time, he actually didn't cry at all!  Mommy was so proud!  He has been fine ever since.  We also have been struggling with talking, he has fallen way behind, and we finally have been approved and will start speech therapy next tuesday.  I'm still praying there is nothing wrong, and he will be able to catch up with a little assistance.  He's actually made a lot of progress over the last few weeks, it's a little more challenging to teach him - we actually need to break down every word by sounds, and teach him one at a time.  We've also been teaching him a little sign language - he knows "more", "milk", "sorry", "please", "big (he made his own)", which we found out actually helps with learning words because it activates the same part of the brain.  He also has learned quite a few new words, and refined a few of the ones he was saying.  If you can check out the right side of the blog sight I have all his words listed.  Latest words are Obe (kobe), T-O (toe), Owl, Mo (more), ME, puppy and No (just today).  Other than our struggles, he is my sweetie and loves to give kisses on my cheek for no reason at all, and momma loves it!!  I better go, I hear him talking, and last time I let Kobe entertain him until I got there - you can see below what happened!

Vacation at the cabin

Doesn't that fire look relaxing? We had a wonderful week vacation at a cabin in Northern Wisconsin, in the deep pines!

Here are some highlights:

-a dozen albino deer encounters (one within 15 ft)

-watching the boys play at the beach

-canoeing to the beach

-amazing water ski show

-morning runs through the deep pines

-bonfires with the sound of the lake

-the little shops

-Kobe catching 6 fish in less than 30 min

-sleeping in a twin bed with my 4 yr old

-Kobe asking to go on a bear hunt

-wearing sweatshirts in the middle of summer

-seeing cranberry bogs

-live music in the park

-our little family aleeping safe and snug in one bedroom :)

Baby Jett

above: 4 weeks   below: 10 weeks  Wow, has it really been that long since I updated the blog?  We've been having issues with troy's computer (works fine for him - weird), where all our pictures were without any backups, so that was my first priority.   Big news in our life - mommy has a job, and he's adorable as you can see.  I start watching "baby jett" full time over a month ago already, and he has grown so much.  He is such a good, easy baby, it's really been a treat.  The boys are so good with him, it's so adorable to see how sweet and gentle they can be, and excellent helpers as well!  Maybe this will get the baby blues out of mommy's system!!!

Whitewater

Last weekend we took another camping trip. Whitewater state park is one of the top rated parks. There's a lot of hiking, birdwatching, a beach, and they almost guarantee no skeeters! It was a very cool weekend for July, but it was perfect for camping - jeans and sweatshirts. Some highlights: Brennan loving riding in the back carrier during beautiful nature hiking, throwing rocks in the river, carving names in the rock, the boys at the beach even though the water was freezing, not one bug bite for any of us, watching people fly fish, and having a campsite right next to the stream/river. I woke up the first morning thinking -there cannot be anything better than waking up to the sound of birds chirping, a trickling stream, the warm sun, and snuggling up to my boys - safe and snug tucked in our little tent.

pillowcase fun

Yes, that would be Kobe in a pillowcase - okay, maybe my babies aren't that big yet!  He seriously wanted to sleep in it for naptime!  Ooooh comfy!!

One parade?

Yes, only one parade this year - we always do John Kline's home town - lakeville.  The boys had a blast - Brennan loves riding the GATOR now even more than last year!  And it was a great weather day!  Nothing more to say!

Camp Croix

What a beautiful weekend for the 4th of July. We were so blessed to spend the whole weekend with my entire family at a camp in Northern Wisconsin where I used to go to as a child. It's amazing how much it brings back memories. The weather couldn't be any more perfect, so here are some highlights:

*family canoing,

*swimming in a beauiful clean lake with a great beach,

*great fires (thanks bill for bringing wood),

*mmm good food and only having to plan one meal,

*fireworks reflecting off the lake,

*morning runs with my sister,

*bald eagle's nest & walking right under it,

*outdoor church on sunday morn,

*troy building a mini golf course (par 24),

*dirt - sand and more dirt for the boys,

*playing with cousins Noah and Sydnie

I can't think of a better way to spend the fourth.

Last day of Soccer

Yes, soccer is over.  It was a lot of fun, and I think Troy really enjoyed coaching and getting to know the 9 boys on the team.  Brennan and mommy enjoyed getting to know the other parents/siblings on the sidelines.  Kobe wasn't really into it at first, but by the end he was really enjoying it and didn't want it to be finished!  It is amazing the progress made by this team - by far the youngest team.  Now we're down to just Tball and swimming lessons.