Joseph's First Birthday Party

Cake with help!




















Eatin' good stuff!














Can we help you with the cake?















All 6 of the little ones!
Joseph, Christopher, Mark, Timmy, Thor, Lorelei.








Eating Cake Video!

Summer Vacation

We are back!!! We just spent the week at a cabin, up north, on a lake, with my parents and our boys. It was wonderful. We fished, relaxed, ate, relaxed, slept, ate, boated, fished, ate....

It was, of course, not long enough, but when is a vacation ever long enough? I really think another 2 or 3 days would have been perfect. It just takes us that long to settle into vacation mode and start to really enjoy it.

We were on Long Lake, just outside of Park Rapids. Far enough removed to feel nice and isolated yet close enough to run to town to get groceries, go out to eat, do a little shopping- you know just the essentials.

Joseph let for vacation weighing in at 16lbs 2 oz, came back at 16lbs 9 oz and is 16lbs 13 oz today. Little boy has really started gaining the weight. It is about time too. He weighed 14lbs 4 oz at his 6 mo check up and is coming up quickly on 3 pounds in 2 months! He left for vacation eating solids once a day, and came back eating 3 or 4 times a day. You cannot feed it to him fast enough. Growth spurt!!! He is sleeping in his crib for naps now as well. Amma taught him how to do that on vacation as well. I had been working on it with him but it just wasn't going well, and I just won't do crying to sleep, so slow going it was. But this week he has napped in the crib every day. In fact he is sleeping in it right now! Yeah Amma!!!

Christopher caught his first fish on vacation. Reeled it in and everything. Mommy held the pole he did everything else. It was a sunfish and it was actually big enough to keep. Way to go big boy! He is also making progress on the potty training, again thanks to Amma. We just need her to come move in here and teach the boys stuff.

Oh yeah she taught Joseph how to sit as well on vacation, and he is loving his new perspective on the world these days. That Amma! Teach my boys how to be big.

I caught a couple bigger large mouth bass myself on vacation. Yep I like to fish. And yes I can bait my own hook, take the fish off and tie my own line thankyouverymuch. (Granted I take the fish off with my fishing shirt- long sleeve shirt that I pull the sleeves over my hands when needed, don't actually need to touch a leech to bait it- have my own unique way involving a small bait net/cooler top that works for me. But still........)

Jamie got all the "stuff" installed on his boat. We have a Larson, which is more designed for fun/skiing/tubing, but he is making it a makeshift fishing boat as well. Which is fine by me as it is wayyyyy more comfortable than any fishing boat I have ever been on. So he got his high tech fish finder/GPS and a rear mount trolling motor. (No ugly front mount one that you can see for my pretty boat- nope, no way, not gonna happen) Oh, and the seat lifts so they don't sit so low. Maybe he is done now. Nahhhhhh I am sure there must be something else absolutely essential that I will start hearing about shortly. Isn't there always? ;)

What a nice surprise!

So last night I was sitting in the couch waiting for my cleaning lady to come, dreading trying to keep the boys out of her way and get supper made, when my friend Molly calls. We taught toghether for years and both had kids at the same time, but just don't get much time to get together anymore. She invited us over to go to the park and I jumped at the chance. So off we went, BK for supper it was. (yeah nutrition choices could have been better there, but whatever;) It was so nice to visit with her. And see little Will who is 3 1/2 months. Soooooo cute. She is super mom, 3 kids all under 3, the oldest will turn 3 in August. Yikes! Just thinking about getting all 3 out the door in the morning makes me cringe. Christopher had a blast and is still talking about the dog (poor Jane and Maggie get forgotten about for the dog).

Then I come home to a clean house and life is good.

Cribs, snuggles and boys.

New crib for the new baby. Ahhhhhhh Christopher's crib was cheap and ended up recalled. We chose to go the route of a good one this time. So off we all trek to the Amish store, can I just say how much I love this crib! It was the one I spotted right away and fell in love with its simple lines and solid contruction. No drop sides, no moving parts and a real spring under the matress, not just the 4 rods on the old one. The wood even smells good. I love this crib. It should be the kind of crib that is safe for all of my children to use and then eventually my grandchildren when they come to visit. Classic Mission style, no gaps, no unsafe parts. Just quality, sturdy construction out of real wood.


Too bad he doesn't sleep in it much yet. But that will come, naps are starting, some nights he starts in there before coming to snuggle with mommy and have nums.

Yes we co-sleep, and love it. Pre-kids we never dreamed we would, but it is amazing how things change once you have one or more of your own. We are following our parenting instincts to guide our parenting. (Well and a little mommy push when needed :) ) Christopher still likes to snuggle with daddy to go to sleep at night. It is his special time. After thinking we needed to break him of this habit, we have come to realize that there really is no reason he cannot have daddy cuddle with him to go to sleep. It may not be the "norm", but it works for us. Christopher and daddy have such a close relationship and this just nurtures that. Christopher has his own bed and sleeps in it 80% of the time. But some nights he just needs his mommy and daddy and then he is welcome to join us. We are more and more grateful that we made the decision for a king bed! We need every inch.

Rainy days and My Boys

Rainy days. Grey and dreary, yet so full of hope and life. Spring has finally arrived, winter this year was brutal and so terribly long. Flowers are blooming, tree buds are breaking out, perennials are peaking out from below the brown leftovers of last year.

Joseph is still not sitting on hs own, should I be worried, I have decided not yet. He rolls, eats his precious little toes, talks to everything and everyone, he loves to stand on my lap and just talk and laugh. He has a really ticklish area along his spine, he will giggle and squirm and smile when you get him there. He is such a snuggler, he really only naps while being held, Amma has him here. He just loves to cuddle and be the center of attention, just like his brother. My little cuddlebugs. Last night daddy had them both cuddled with him, in bed, asleep. Both were snuggled up to daddy as close as they could. So sweet.

Plans are being made for the summer, cabin up north with Amma and Bap Bap, trip to Las Vegas for us all for a Snap-On Franchisee big meeting, a camping trip with the boys, some weekends on the boat. Ahhhhhh summer is my favorite season.

As ordered by Michelle!! :)

I have been instructed to get this blog up to date so here goes.

This weekend we took Christopher to see Elmo Makes Music - Sesame Street Live at the Target Center. It was really up in the air if we were going to make it or not, Christopher has been sick off and on for over a week now. But he made it and enjoyed it. He would ask "Where Mo? whenever Elmo would go off stage- he loves Elmo right now. We bought him one of the overpriced Elmo balloons at intermission and got it all the way to our second stop on the way home and then it floated right out of the car- AUGHHHH!

Christopher attended his very first non relative birthday party this month. Bella- one of our daycare kiddos, turned one and had a party- well mostly it was a play date with lunch and cake :) It was very cute to watch him play with Bella at her house for a change. I don't know if she knew what to do with us coming to her house-She has never seen Christopher outside of here before!

Christopher has entered the independent stage! He wants to do everything his way or no way. Like milk or water for example- now he wants it in a regular cup- which is fine while we are right there watching him every second- don't look away though- milk everywhere, food in the cup, ect... He will throw a temper tantrum if he doesn't get his way. Luckily they are short lived and then he will move on to something else.

He also is big on dumping everything out. That is his favorite part of playing, dumping out the toys. He would dump every toy out in the house if we would let him- he just thinks that is big fun!

Ok that's all the time I have for now!

Christopher's first visit with Santa

Well last night Christopher had his first visit with Santa. I really wondered how he would be, would be be scared of this bearded stranger? Would he cry? Would he refuse to sit on his lap? Nope none of the above. When we got in line and pointed Santa out to him he pointed to him and said Santa- and then was more interested in the floweres and trees that were decorating the area. As we waited he would look over in Santa's direction and say Santa. He was very anxious to get in the door when it was our turn. When it was time to actually get into Santa's lap he was just a little timid, but with just a little coaxing by daddy he went right into his lap. He posed for two pictures and then sat and "talked" to santa for a minute when he was done. As I was paying for the picture, Christopher took off with daddy in pursuit, where did he head? Right back to the end of the line again- he wanted to do it again, and he knew where he had to go. :)

Where does the time go?

Wow it is already the week of Thanksgiving. Wasn't Halloween just last week? (It should have been- Christopher's costume is still out in our room :) )
We will be going to Amma and Bap Bap's for Thanksgiving. Dumplings here we come!!
Last weekend Christopher and Mommy, Daddy and Grandma Ione went over to Austin and saw two of his great grandma's. We took them out for lunch and Christopher played and showed off.
Last week Christopher got a hold of an almost full box of cereal from the counter and dumped the whole thing on the little table. He then sat down and ate some of it, the rest went on the floor. I guess what he had for breakfast wasn't good enough that day. He is getting so tall- I can't believe he can reach things from the counters now. He already is a pro at opening drawers and pulling things out. Yikes!
Christopher loves the vacuum cleaner- he always wants to plug it in and make it go - so we found a little vacuum for him. It makes noise and has a hose and everything, he absolutely loves the thing! It is amazing the things kids like.

Halloween is coming!

This weekend Amma and Bap Bap came to visit and they brought Lorelei with them! Christopher loved playing with all of them. It was actually nice this weekend so we took the babies out to Oxbow to see the animals. Christopher wasn't feeling the best, so he spent most of his time on daddy's sholders, but Lorelei was in animal heaven- she was so excited about all of them. The deer that came right over to her, the bear that was "shh, nigh, nigh", the water that no otters were swimming in, yet it was exciting all the same, the fox in a box. She just couldn't get enough.

We carved tons of pumpkins this weekend and Jamie got even more decorations set up on the yard. Christopher liked climbing into mommy or daddy's laps periodically just to see what we were doing. We tried to get him to help carve a pumpkin last night, but he just wasn't interested. All this and it will all be taken down on Wednesday. He really loves Halloween and gets into the decorating! Some of the pumpkins are really elaborate, wow! I have to go get lots and lots of candles tonight so that we can light them all.

The time change makes for easier mornings, not so hard to drag ourselves out of bed before the first kid arrives at the door.

Music

Christopher has become very musical lately. He will ask for the music to be turned on by pointing at the radio and "dancing". His latest dance involves lifting each foot up, and very deliberatly stomping it down while sort of swaying to the music. If you don't turn on the music when he wants it- watch out!
Daddy has made up his own Christopher song from Hippy, Hippy, Hipopantomos (sp?)
He got a set of instruments for his birthday and now we have gotten him some additional ones from Do-Re-Me and You. Of course I couldn't bear all the "music" that would be played all day by the daycare kids (most likely by beating another child over the head with the drum sticks- yikes!!), so Christopher has to wait until they all go home to play with them. He asks for them on a regular basis by pointing and uh, uh, uh until we get them down for him. (We do occasionally use them during daycare- under very, very close supervision) He is sitting on the floor right now making music for mommy.
He also loves to dance to the Lauri Berkner Music Videos. (AKA "Dance Bee's" by the daycare kids) He gets so excited when it comes on and has started to imitate the moves they use, I think the dinosaurs stomping song is where he got his moves. Although "turning around" to another song is a big fun thing for him.

Oh My!

Oh My! Timmy and Lorelei just left a little while ago and Auntie is tired! Wow- they have a lot of energy and manage to get into everything. I loved every minute of it, but I can't imagine having all three of them all the time- Yikes!
Last night we fed the babies spagetti and the mess it made- oh my, oh my. Christopher had some baby food to go with dinner and the other two had to get in on the act. First Timmy had to compete with Christopher for just about every bite he got, then Lorelei wanted some, only she really didn't want to be fed it, so Auntie / Mommy Lexi gave her the cap to lick. And did that start something, Lorelei would lick it and then bring it to me, "more" and then I would spoon a little on it, she would lick it and back for more she would be. Timmy decided he needed a cap to lick as well- so I was trying to feed Christopher from the spoon and filling up two caps that were being shoved in front of me, along with demands for "more". We went through 4 jars before I said enough!
Into the bath they all went- they were beyond filthy! Three babies in a tub! (And one wet Auntie/ Mommy H by the time they were done)
Lorelei was so funny this morning, they were eating pancakes and some of the other kids were done with theirs and getting more. Well she decided she needed more too, so she took all of her pancakes out of her dish, set them on the table, and then held it up and asked for more. She knew she had to have them all gone to get more- so she figured out a way to get rid of them.
I was amazed over and over again by what they are able to do. Timmy put a spoon in the sink when asked to, and so did Christopher. Lorelei was able to climb up the little climbing mountain on the playset, by herself and then get onto the platform and go down the slide. (Of course she did have to be extra careful because Timmy would come by moving twice as fast on his way up and down and almost knock her off!)

Well this week Christopher has been non stop exploring. He absolutely will not leave the new set of drawers I got for daycare supplies alone. Every time he is quiet, I find him tearing them apart. Today he got a hold of an ink pad and proceeded to put his hands and mouth! into it before I could get it away from him. Luckily it was washable! What a mess.
Yesterday he got a hold of my Diet Coke can when I wasn't looking and managed to get a few drinks of it before mommy caught him. He didn't even spill any- but he sure had a mustache.
I went out with a daycare mom last night and daddy and Christopher had a boys night out. Where did they go? To have spagetti and then over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to play. Christopher got a kick out of playing chase with Grandma Ione- around and around the furniture they went.
Tonight we are going to take the boat over to Great grandma Milly's house to store it for the winter in the machine shed. Tomorrow afternoon we will be going and seeing great grandpa and Karen as we will already be over in the area. Good time for Chirstopher to see them. Hopefully tonight he will sleep on the way over. Otherwise the 3 hours in the car could be a long trip!

To the Zoo

On Sunday all of us met at the zoo. We had a picnic before going thru the zoo. I don't think Amma got much to eat, as she had two of the three eating on her lap. Not that she seemed to mind.
The ducks were a big hit- as were the monkeys. But I think the polar bear swimming was the favorite of all three. Timmy kept making the fish sign as he watched the bear swim. I guess anything in the water is a fish. Lorelei was tickled pink watching the bear swim back and forth. Christopher had to go outside to get a better look at it, especially as it came out of the water each time. It was really nice that all the babies were able to get together. It is nice that they get to spend as much time together as they do.

Christopher has discovered how to hug today. He keeps going to Bella and giving her a hug. She has been pretty tolerant of him. It is so cute to see, especially as last week they were too busy pushing each other down to hug.
He has been having a pretty tough time last night and today, I don't think he feels the best, very clingy. Yesterday he wouldn't let daddy put him down for a nap- arching his back, hanging on for deal life. And then he did the same thing when it was bed time. In the middle of the night he ended up in bed with us, he was screaming, and daddy rescued him. Today he wants to be held, and wants everything, then when he gets it he forgets about it and on to something else, when I tell him no he screams. Just not like him.

Visiting the Park

Christopher got to go to a new park today with mommy. We went to the big park over by Silver Lake. Christopher was in heaven! His little pointer finger was leading him everywhere, mommy could hardly keep up. Slides and ladders and stairs and steering wheels, oh my!
He was one tired little guy by the time we left to bring lunch to daddy.
When ever he goes to see daddy at work he really, really wants to go in the back shop area, the loud noises just make him hang on tighter, but he doesn't want to leave! Such a boy. He got mad when we wouldn't take him out there today.

When daddy came home this afternoon, Christopher got to go back to the park, again! Twice in one day- what a lucky little boy! It was just such a nice day, and who knows how many more we will have this year, that nasty little word- s#*w- has made it back into the forecast around Amma's house, before long we will all have it. BRRR.

Christopher is going to be a chicken for halloween this year. Originally he was going to be a skunk as mommy and daddy lovingly refer to him as their little stinkpot. But he started making chicken noises and it was just so cute that when mommy and cousin Sammy saw the chicken costume they couldn't resist. Now whenever we go to the closet to pick clothes, he tries to grab it to wear. He started making the chicken noises at the cat. Mommy would call the cat a chicken for running away and make the noise and aparently Christopher picked up on it. Now the poor child thinks that is what a cat says. Oops.