Family pics

I thought getting family pics done with one child were tough try it with two or more. These shots were taken on my birthday. My favorite is the one where 3 of us are smiling and at least Karlie is looking forward on this one. The other happened to be the last picture we took and gave up on taking any more. Adam & I just looked forward & hoped the kids would look at the camera. As my mom & dad are saying, Karlie say cheese (one quick cheese & then looks away), OK, Karlie say cheese 5 time & look at the camera, as at the same time they are saying Tanner up here, bud, look up here, youhoo, Tanner, Ok Karlie again look up here... It was crazy. We did this when we were with Adam's mom Judy and his sister Holly, her husband & little guy Nathan back in October. This made 3 little ones & 5 grownups. The grownups trying to get the kids t look, but forgetting to look themselves, the photographer calling Karlie (Cayla, Carla, Kylie, basically everything, but her name). Our pictures were hilarious. I think if you were to make one of those flip books you would have been able to see how the photoshoot went downhill. Oh, well, it makes an imprint on our minds. Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Birthdays

I know birthdays come every year at the same time for each & everyone of us, but just to let everyone know here & now all of my birthdays stop. :) Yesterday was my 29th, eeeeek! I think this is the most freaked out about a birthday I've ever been. I had a couple of days of deep thinking & examining, both on what I have done in my life thus far and searching out my face for existing lines ( I thought maybe some had appeared over night or something), etc. I have accomplished many things just a few being the following: a wonderful husband whom I've been married to for almost 9 years, two absolutely adorable children, a family that I'm so close to, a college degree, a house we've made a home, and so many more. So in looking back I feel I've been the luckiest person. This is all I needed to regroup myself and take another approach to this whole birthday thing. Only one year left in my 20s, so therefore what is there left to do but live it up. I have every intention of doing that. Age is only a number, right. (Of course, I'll probably have to do the same thing again next year.)

We celebrated my birthday with a homemade pizza party with the family, with my special request of lemon meringue pie (complements of my mom) instead of a cake. It was awesome!!! It was a lot of fun. Thanks family!!!

Happy Easter!!!

I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter. We sure did. The kids looked for hidden baskets. Mom & I headed to morning church service with the kids and then ate breakfast at the church that the teens were serving. Then out to moms. We prepped all the food, visited, and made homemade cards. Then everyone came over to feast. We got to eat the yummy cake that Karlie had frosted up. So much fun.

Tanner WaHooo!!!!

My little guy is just about 11 months now and we're hitting some more of those important milestones. While we were at Charlie & Jessica's he actually took a couple of steps on his own from the furniture to the end table. Then just last night he stood up by himself in the middle of the floor with no help twice!!! Mommy & Grandma hooted & hollered & he looked at us like we were crazy (which we are for the kids). He also waved bye, bye for the first time at Grandma & Papa as they were heading out the door. They came over because I told them I'd cook since they worked all week. So we had fun giggling at the kids. I can't believe he's already going to be a year old next month! The year went so quick.

Children & those "Tuff" questions

I've been reading one of my favorite books to Karlie "Charlotte's Web". Each night we read a chapter or two together. This is also her favorite movie. As we know, Wilbur's life & keeping him alive is talked about and Charlotte's death. Karlie has been asking more questions concerning this. I'm telling this story because it is so touching to me and also so very cute from a childs perspective. (I will mention our cat Figaro also passed away a couple weeks ago and Chester our yellow lab went last summer.)This is how our vehicle ride went yesterday morning:

Karlie- Mom, where does God live?
Me- He lives in Heaven.
Karlie- Does God have a house?
Me- I said sure.
Karlie- Does God have dogs & cats for pets?
Me- I told her God took care of all our pets that pass away (reason being because she asked about Figaro)
Karlie- I miss Figaro, I miss Chester, too, and I also miss Grandma Hansen
Me- (getting teary eyed because I didn't think she remembered) I said I do too, honey
Karlie- Did God fix Grandma Hansen?
Me- (silent for a moment to regroup) Yes, honey, he sure did. Grandma's better now.
Karlie- Good

I just thought it was an adorable story. Children and their innocence and curiousity. When we told her about Figaro, she said, well, OK, but I still have Nala (our other cat) right, and on she went playing. I'm not sure I'm ready to start answering these questions, but apparently I have began doing it.

Motherhood vs. Patience

I know these are supposed to go hand in hand, but is there a time limit. Probably not. I have been very well tested this week and found that I definatly need more patience. There is only so many, "I said did you hear me or I told you not to do that didn't I". Here's some quotes I found that were kind of interesting.

Patience can't be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle.
Every day you need to work on it.
- Eknath Easwaran

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.
-Franklin P. Jones

(This would be where I say I am really working on getting more patience, if I could order them from a catalog I would.) That last quote is sooooo very true.

What can I say, I'm a work in progress. I think I'm just about in the clear today was a pretty good day compared to the last couple I've had with my high-spirited gal. :) Usually it goes a light testing, really hard testing, & then a light tester, then we're good again for awhile. I suppose this is just to see if mom (me) has forgotten the boundaries. Nope I haven't. At least I can look back on the day and giggle. If anyone has any extra helper ideas send them my way.

Florida 2008

Back from Florida

Boy, it's good to be back home...not. Not that I don't like being home, but I'm so sick of the snow & we just got more last night. Absolutely great trip to Florida. Sorry the blogs have been slow: tired from traveling, hard drive went out of laptop (which I keep upstairs & regular computer downstairs so with the kids it's hard to find enough time to blog), unpacking, & the kids have colds. I spent majority of the night up with Tanner last night because he couldn't breath good & would cry. Poor little thing & Karlie just has a bad bark now.

We mostly laid pool side & played with the kids in the pool. Karlie is like a fish didn't get out of the water much at all. She met lots of little friends. One of the little girls we saw almost everyday so they would swim together and then when it was time to leave they would give each other a hug & a kiss. It was so sweet! Tanner just liked splashing and did not care for his life vest at all.

We did take in a little time at the beach with Auntie Holly & cousin Nathan that was a lot of fun except with little ones it's hard. The boys ate sand, Tanner by the handfuls & Nathan very sneaky (using only one finger I think he'd been told before by mom not the eat the sand). It was adorable. Tanner loved standing in the ocean. Karlie picked shells. Adam had given her a big ziplock bag to fill & we weren't aloud to leave the beach until it was full & then still under protest. She didn't care if the shells were pretty she just grabbed a bunch and stuffed them in the bag. It was beautiful to be out in all that sand & vast ocean as far as the eye could see.

We also went on an adventure as Karlie calls it. The guys got this wild idea to drive through the everglades so off we went exploring with the rental van. First we went to a preserve of sorts & drove down a dirt road throwing marshmellows out to alligators & they'd come up on shore VERY, VERY close to the vehicles. Then off we went down some Jane's RD stopping along the way to peak over the edge into the water near colverts for snakes, poking sticks, etc. to see what we could find. This lasted all day and we actually saw a vehicle down this road & had to ask for directions on how to get off of it & back to civilization. Adam & my dad were so excited because they saw all these back roads they wanted to check out. They went fishing the nexy day on the banks of these areas watching for snakes & alligators, poking at each other with sticks when the other wasn't looking to see if they could scare each other. Dad caught a otter that shook itself loose & Adam caught a pirhana like fish (or so they thought as they checked for teeth). It was more like our bluegills or sunfishes. Mom & I figured we'd be two less on the trip home because the boys didn't take us serious at telling them about poisonous snakes & spiders. They guys also went deep sea/inland fishing. But they both came home fine with fresh bedtime stories to tell Karlie.

We had so much fun with all the aunties & uncles. So many laughs & so many memories. It's so special that we got to travel with grandma & papa too so they get to share & help make all these memories for our kids. Well, I sure wish we could have stayed longer, but Charlie said if we wanted to do that there was a hotel just down the road! Love you Charlie & Jessica & thanks so much for letting us stay with you. Holly, Marc, & Nathan it was so wonderful to be able to do stuff together, love you.

Wii

Have any of you ever tried the Wii. I absolutely love it. We've been playing it every night. You can make the people look like yourself and then compete against each other. Adam & I boxed each other & I knocked him out. We've had a bowling competition, tennis match, baseball game, guitar hero, and cow race. The boxing was probably the biggest workout. I may have to get one.

MN Twins

Well, the MN Twins played the Cincinnati Reds yesterday in their Spring Training game at Hammond Stadium. Peanuts & hot dog gallore. There were 7,802 people there, but it still had that small town feel to it (1-box popcorn, 1 lg soda, & 8-hot dogs = $39.50, 3- MN Twins programs (made for each individual game @ $5 ea.) = $15, 2- Twins t-shirts for the kids = $30, and the memories of the kids all dressed up in their baseball hats cheering & clapping = PRICELESS. We lucked out & our seats were in the shade or we probably would have fried. It was 82. Karlie got her snow cone & cotton candy. The game started off with the Twins pitching and the 1st batter of the Reds having is bat break in half & fly when the ball made contact. AWESOME!!! The 9th inning they tied up 6 to 6 and went into overtime. The Twins ended it with a runner on & a HOME RUN!!! The final score was the Twins 8 to Reds 6. It was so much fun. Something about actually being at the stadium that brings out the kid in you. Pretty soon you're hooting & hollering. Adam had both hands on a foul ball and this Dude(we'll call him this because I don't think he was very nice) turns around and rips it out of his hands. Oh well, but it would have been pretty cool to have. Today we're going to go bask in the sun. If I was here in the winter months; I'd have to have season passes to the Twins Spring Training because this is the only way to watch real baseball (TV is boring). I know my dad does it but it's not as exciting. I would have given you names of the Twins players, but most of them I've never heard of because their in the minors yet or just new to the team except for a few. Well, gotta go feed the rugrats & head to the pool!

Florida

Spent the day by the pool yesterday and got a little pink myself. It was about 83 here. The kids had a blast in the pool and today we're off to the MN Twins spring training game. Mostly we just lounged. The airplane trip here was pretty good with the kids. Tanner mostly slept and Karlie watched her DVDs until she announced to everyone that she must go poop. (I said... I have to go poop!!!) People looked at us like why are you not taking your child to the bathroom. 1) Tanner was sleeping in my arms & I was on the aisle seat 2) Adam would have to climb over me to take her & still wake up Tanner 3) Turbulence...we flagged grandma down to take her so it took a but she made it. Funny stuff I tell you. Well, this is a short one. I hope it's not too cold back home. If it is I will bring the sun back for you guys!