Baby Victoria

We were so excited to meet our little niece last night. The boys have a new girl cousin, and mommy gets to buy pink! She is so tiny, just under 6 lb coming home from the hospital yesterday at 3 days old. Isn't God amazing?

What a cutie, she's winking at the boys already!

Victoria Jean Sell

1.19.2010

6 lb 4 oz

Welcome to the family!

More Christmas's??

I know, I know - it doesn't really look like christmas! We did have our last 2 christmas celebrations the past 2 weekends - the first one, my mom's side we all got rooms at the water park in wisc dells - much fun!! Breaking news - Kobe actually swam all by himself with floaties - I know he's five, but it's been a struggle - of course brennan is just a fish - it is so adorable as he just dives in and starts the doggie paddle! It come natural to him I guess - I know he didn't get that from me or troy - hmmmm.

And the second one was for Troy's dad's side - it is always fun to see everyone, and as you can see there were a lot of kids - but that's nothing - there were 3 babies under 5 months old - and all have the same grandparents! They are exhausted! It is always so good to see everyone at each of our 7 christmas's - I just wish we had time to get together more often - I hope our extended christmas's never dissolve. Family is such a wonderful, important part of our life!

Auntie Dee

My best friend (since first grade), Deanna came to visit this week, aka Brennan's godmother, and basically my fourth sister. She lives in Virginia, and does NOT miss this crazy cold weather! We are total opposites, but finally found something we have in common - mexican food!!! So we headed to a nearby restaurant, and before we knew it, 3 hrs had gone by - wow, did we need to catch up!! Thanks dee for the visit, and we wish you God's blessings on your future marriage!!

Blue Finn Bay Resort

Wow, could you wake up to that every morning??? I sure could - these were taken right out our bedroom window! It was so gorgeous, and so weird to hear the crashing waves, but feel the cold air, and notice the ice on the rocks!! Troy's parents took us up to Blue Finn Bay resort up north of Duluth, near Lutsen ski resort, in a town called Tofte (troy and heidi actually spent their 1st anniversary here, hiking). It was a blast. We did some ice skating (mommy found out she could actually skate a little, even though it's been 30 years), hockey, swimming, snow shoeing (well actually we tried, but they only had an inch of snow), hot tub, sauna, brisk walks along lake superior, it was so much fun - thank you bonnie and roger.

Our Family.

Troy's brother's family.

Here's Everybody!!!

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!!!