Daddy and E

If you haven't been able to tell already...we spent some time outside last night just taking some pictures of A & E.....


Showing off those big blue eyes.....


Relaxing....Little E didn't like the feel of the grass at all....we tried a couple times to lay him in it and he just started screaming.

Optical Illusions......

Big Ear - Little Ear


4 Ears and 2 bald foreheads


Little Head - BIG body!

Yard of the MONTH

It's true - funny as it may be - at least to us...Our homeowners Association has started a "YARD OF THE MONTH" award, I think as an incentive maybe to those who don't care about their yards - truthfully though - those people probably just never will care about their yards. - but alas we will accept the award and which included a sign in our yard for the month and $50 cash.

Funny Moments with A

The Art of Growing Tomatoes...or Apples??

I decided to try my hand at growing a tomato plant this year....I am really not known to have much of a green thumb...rather black I would say - and after you look closely at this tomato plant you will agree. This plant pretty much went down hill from the first week of being planted....it went through a pretty strong hail storm and just never recoverd. So I pretty much stopped watering it - figuring it was dead. Well about 4 weeks ago I noticed a tomato on it....It literally hadn't been watered in weeks and it still doesn't recieve much water....but we did manage to get one tomato (that we probably won't eat) from it. Better luck next year I guess.
It's also sprouting this strange extra growth on it.....


Everytime A see's it she refers to it as an APPLE - no matter how many times I say it's a Tomato....it's an apple in her eye.



Tonight she decided to give it a taste.....I didn't let her actually eat it....but she had fun pretending.

A High Meadows Hike.....

In the forest behind our house there is all kinds of forest service roads that you can typically hike or even drive on - so on Saturday morning our friends called to see if we wanted to venture off on a little hike with the kids.



Little E - ready to go....


A & A - the best of friends


We found this quite comical - here we bring the jogging stroller and 2 hiking packs for the kids...and what do they want to do - WALK. So, of course our hike was a bit slower but they really did pretty good.


Our one attempt at a photo and guess who didn't want to cooperate!?!?!


The "P" Family


By the end of our hike all 3 kids had taken a turn in the stroller or the kelty packs.

NEWS FLASH!!!!

Can you believe it???? Our Daddy is the.......

BIG 3-0 today!!!!

We love you, Hope you have a great day...

S, A & E

Look who's Back.....

It's my friend "A" who lives down the street......she has been gone for the last 6 months while her Daddy was deployed...but he is coming back tomorrow too!!!

You Know It's HOT When.......

Your sliding glass door shatters from the heat beating on it all Day.

Thankfully it's still covered under warranty so we'll be getting it re-placed soon!!!

So Cute.....

Grandma and Grandpa D brought this outfit for A....
and A just kept saying,
"SO CUTE, SO CUTE"

The Potty.....

Although we are not attacking this with all our might yet....we thought we would start putting the thought in A's mind....She is pretty good about always telling us about needing to go potty...but then alas when we place her on the toliet....nothing happens!!! But boy would it sure be nice to only have to diaper one child....She does enjoy her book though while sitting there.

4 months old.....

And Growing Like A Weed!!!


E was 4 months old this past Tuesday....we had his checkup today....the results:
Weight: - 16 lbs. 12 oz.
Height: - 26 inches long
Head: - well just big and heavy!!!
Doctor's overall remarks: "well aren't you just a big boy...that doesn't miss a meal"

Tower of Fun......

A really enjoys her playground.....especially her swing...I think she could swing for hours if we let her. She also enjoys climbing the stairs to the tower...but getting her down really takes some convincing...not because she is scared to come down...she just really likes to stand up there and look around...so it usually means offering to put her back in the swing to get her to come down the slide.

The Bumbo and THE MUMBO

E has really taken to sitting in the "Bumbo"....I think he loves just being able to sit up without help or being held....problem is....A always wants to be in the "bumbo" when E is in it. Soooo...yesterday we had to create the "MUMBO" - a.k.a. - Mom's lap. It seemed to work - for awhile.

An Evening Swim.....

It finally cooled off enough outside last night that we felt we could actually enjoy a little time out there (we are supposed to have 100's all week)....we had filled the pool with water yesterday....so we let A, and our friends T & C go at it. They really seemed to enjoy the water, despite it being pretty cold still.

Corn on the Cob

"You mean I can really have my own ear of corn???"


"oh - boy, this is great stuff"

Look what I can FINALLY Do......

With a head as big as mine...no wonder it took so long!!!


As you can see though, it's still not the easiest and I do have to work at it quite a bit.

He Just Keeps Growing.......

Little E is wearing 12 month PJ's tonight.....so I have to either think they are just really small 12 month PJ's....or good golly he needs to stop eating so much!!

2 of a kind......

Drama, Drama, Drama......

Or is it TRAUMA, TRAUMA, TRAUMA........

This was our day.....it really wasn't a bad one...I was just beginning to wonder if A was going to survive.
First, this morning we (A, Little E and myself) drove to Sturgis to license and register the new van....it's about a 20 mile drive. About 2 miles into it...A discovers a FLY, flying around the car and doesn't like it - AT ALL. By mile 6 she is shreaking in terror....I kept thinking she would settle down....but no. I had to pull off the interstate and try and shooo the fly out of the car or kill it. I wasn't successful at either - but we did finally make it there and back.
Then, this afternoon - I needed to run a few errands in town....one of which was to pick up a friends mail. So I pull into the drive way...and my plan of attack was to leave the kids buckled in the car, quick jump out grab the mail out of the mail box and get back in the car - taking the mail with me (all of 5 seconds the kids would be alone in the car). That plan backfired....some how...my driver side door locked when I got out....and now the kids were locked in the car, car running (thank goodness) with the air on, cell phone in the car....A screaming AGAIN in terror. So I had to find a neighbor that was home, call E - to come unlock the car all the while A still screaming in the car. Little E - fast asleep. E finally got to us, unlocked my doors...and we had to let A out to settle down.
Next, I head off to car wash, to wash off some of the 50 million bugs we killed while driving to and from MN.....As we enter the car wash, all is going well UNITL - the actual wash starts.....we now have A screaming in the back again in terror and shaking uncontrolbly - I guess she is scared of car washes too. I practically had to crawl into the back seat with her....to calm her down while the car idled through the wash.
Now we are off to Sam's for Groceries.....we barely make it out of the car wash and now E is screaming at the top of his lungs....I guess he just realized he was hungry...and might wither away to nothing unless he ate right that second.....so A and I listed to 10 minutes of screaming while we drove to Sam's and Little E got a bottled before we could even make it in the store.
As we laid A down to bed tonight....after about 10 minutes of laying there were hear..."Bug, Bug, Bug - Nigh Night Bug"
I can only imagine what tomorow will hold.

A Minnesota Fourth.....

We spent the 4th of July at East Battle Lake.....the water was warm, the tempature nice and the food was great!!!

A, E, Grandma & Little E all taking a swim.



A in her float boat


Little E wasn't too sure about the water...I don't think it was quite up to his standards on tempature.


This was much better....a nap on the floor with the sun beating in.


The one and only fish caught this day.....but Saturday there was plenty to be caught. E & J caught 17 sun fish - it made for a great meal.


A - showing us how fast she can move.


And a little peek -a-boo


And finally whiff of the flowers......


Little E enjoyed the outdoors mostly from his stroller.....he is such a fair skinned little boy....we didn't dare expose him to too much sun.


It just so happens that E and Grandma were both wearing blue stripes for the 4th.