Success!

My cousin Angela took some great pictures of the kids at our little "photo shoot" after Thanksgiving. Angela has an awesome fancy camera and loves photography and she does a great job! Picture #1 here I got printed in size 11 x 14 and gave this framed to Marshall for Christmas. We will hang it somewhere in our house..it looks great! Picture #2 we used for Christmas cards. Oh this picture experience was 100 times better than trying to get a good picture of the 2 kids together at JCPenney's portrait studio..what a nightmare that was. Thank goodness for Angela!

Let it snow, let it snow....ok, ENOUGH!

I think we are officially having the snowiest December on record here in the Twin Cities....we've had some crazy snowstorms already, starting early in November actually. On December 11th, we woke up to a ton of snow already fallen...I was supposed to work that morning but couldn't even get the car to our street. The plow hadn't been through and another car was already stuck out there. I ended up staying home and my boss couldn't make it in either, so the bank lobby just closed for the day (it was a Saturday and we are open until noon). My cousin Kory and his wife Janice had a wedding reception planned for that night in Northeast Minneapolis..they married a few months ago in Hawaii. As it got closer to evening, everything started shutting down as we were in blizzard conditions. The reception ended up being canceled, since the restaurant closed where it was being held! I cannot ever remember things around here shutting down due to weather..all the restaurants, malls, even delivery places...it was just crazy! December 11th is also my sister's birthday, so since we were missing the reception, we tried to get together for her birthday. My brother came over in his truck to pick us up, since we probably wouldn't make it down our street in our small cars. We ended up having a makeshift birthday party for Laura at my parents' house...Laura and my dad made it to the grocery store to pick up some food (they were still open!). It was a fun night and certainly memorable. We ended up with over 20 inches of snow that weekend. And since then we've had several more snowfalls...we are definitely ready for a White Christmas around here!

'Tis the season

Here's a few pictures from our 'practice' Christmas card photo shoot. Obviously it went great...haha. It's hard to get Ella to cooperate with anything these days. My cousin Angela did end up getting some good pictures (I will post those later!). Our holiday season has been a whirlwind ever since Thanksgiving or so. Lots of bad weather around here, lots of family events...busy busy busy!

Ella is about 10 months old in these pictures. She is a pro at walking around now and she's just into everything. I can tell she is going to be our difficult child. She's independent and strong willed. Great qualities to have but it makes it hard on the parents!

Caleb has been ready for Christmas ever since Thanksgiving. We came home from Thanksgiving dinner at Marshall's mom's house and Caleb asked "Is it Christmas now?" He's been counting down the days!

Halloween 2010

We had a busy Halloween season this year, as you can tell from the pictures below. Caleb was a pirate this year and Ella was the most adorable ladybug for her first Halloween. The whole week was full of activities. Caleb made ghost cookies with Auntie Dua...they had a fun party at daycare..and we carved pumpkins at home. Caleb was insistent that we each have our own pumpkin (our pump-quin as he calls them) but he ended up settling for sharing one with Mommy, while Ella shared one with Daddy...less carving for us (not the biggest fans of carving pumpkins at our house!).

On Saturday, the day before Halloween, my work was participating in the Halloween parade. I work at First National Bank of Elk River's Anoka office and Anoka is the offical Halloween capital of the world (even Congress says so!). The Anoka Grand Day parade is a huge deal for this community. I had never been before but was excited to be involved in such an activity. The bank had a float with the theme, "enchanted forest" and we were all dressed up (I was a pirate, too). Caleb was so excited for this and had so much fun! We got to hang out in the staging area, which alone was fun...seeing all the floats and people dressed up. Once the parade got going I was in for a big surprise. It was a HUGE deal..people were lined up in the streets, more people than I've ever seen at a parade, including the big torchlight Aquatennial parade in downtown Minneapolis. Caleb rode on the float with the other little kids and I was walking with my co-workers...more like running, to keep up with the fast moving parade and the huge crowds of kids in costume asking for candy. Before we knew it the parade was over and we walked back to find my parents and Dua sitting towards the end of the route. We were able to watch the rest of the parade, which was so much fun! It was hilarious to see all the people in costume. We will look forward to next year's parade, too.

On Halloween, I took the kids to my parents' house and we went to visit my Aunt Louise, Uncle Ray and cousin Angela. My cousin Jenna came over too with her daughter, Kate, in a cute flower costume. Ella loved the baby and the costume, too. We also stopped at my brother's house and Caleb went trick or treating around there. He was confused when we kept going to different houses, he said 'but these people aren't Uncle Joey's neighbors!' He had a great time!

9 months old...and walking?

Yep, she's walking! Ella took her first steps about 8 1/2 months old, the beginning of October. We were just shocked. Caleb walked around 10 1/2 months and we thought that early! I guess this little girl is just in a hurry to grow up and chase her brother. She's just about 10 months old now that it's mid-November and she cruises everywhere.

Ella also has a mouthful of teeth these days, 6 and counting...she's starting to use a sippy cup and she's a great eater. She can wave bye bye, give kisses, play pat-a-cake, do SO Big...and say mama and dada. She loves Caleb so much and just lights up when she sees him. She can be a little shy around men, it takes her awhile to warm up to Grandpa or Uncle Joey but she loves her Daddy. She often looks for him in the morning, when he's getting ready in the bathroom she'll be standing outside the door. Ella had a 9 month check up in October and she looks great...of course I can't remember her exact stats but she was almost 20lbs, not quite sure on the height. She even did well with shots again.


I included a couple park pictures at the bottom of this post. We had great weather through October so the kids got to be outside a little more...Caleb loved that. He's doing great riding his new bike too! With training wheels, of course.

Birthday boys

At the beginning of October we celebrated birthdays for my brother Joey and Marshall. We went out for dinner and then opened presents and had cupcakes (made by Caleb and me!).

End of soccer!

Caleb finished up his first year of soccer at the beginning of October. It was a 4 week program for 3 and 4 year olds...just perfect for his age, I guess....short enough time span and it wasn't really organized. They just ran around and played little games the coach made up. Caleb had a great time and was SO excited to get a trophy on the last day!!! He is still talking about soccer a month and 1/2 later and talking about next year when he plays soccer again.

North Dakota trip

The last weekend of August we met Marshall's dad and stepmom in Fargo. We stayed at a really nice hotel, with a fun pool/waterslide. Caleb had a great time swimming. We also went to the Red River Zoo and checked out the animals there. They had a fun petting zoo type thing..Caleb got to walk around with the goats and even feed them. He also got early birthday presents and really enjoyed that, of course. The Leap Frog Tag Reader has been a huge hit and he uses that almost every day. Ella was really good on this little trip too..the car ride isn't so fun for her, but she made it and slept really well at the hotel, which was nice! It was a fun weekend.

Happy birthday little man!

Caleb turned 4 on September 24, a couple weeks ago now. We had been anticipating this birthday since he turned 3...so it was a big deal at our house! I had part of the week off, due to daycare being closed, so Caleb, Ella and I had a lot of time together. On the big day we spent some time cleaning and getting organized for the party (on September 25th) and then we went to visit my cousin Jenna and her new baby, Kate. Caleb had fun at her house playing the piano and hanging out with the dog, Diego. Ella got to meet her new friend Kate and she also was pretty interested in Diego! She just giggled when he came near her. After our visit, we came home and Caleb opened his gifts from Marshall and I. He got some clothes, a skateboard (who's brilliant idea was that?? Oops...mine!), a new book for his Tag Reader, Buzz Lightyear toy and a Spiderman puzzle. Also that night we had soccer...Caleb had a huge crowd cheering for him, besides Marshall and I, my parents, Laura, Stephanie and Marshall's dad and stepmom from North Dakota were there. Afterwards we all went to Space Aliens (or Al-lee-leens as Caleb calls it) for dinner. Caleb's been asking to go there for months and he was SO excited. He got to play in the arcade with Marshall and they won a bunch of prizes...a bow and arrow, a 4 wheeler toy, Batman and even a Vikings bear. I think Caleb was more excited about that stuff than his presents! He got an ice cream sundae and even saw the scary Alien guy (which he told Auntie Dua earlier was just a guy in a costume...but when he was face to face with this he freaked out!). It was a really fun day.


On Saturday we had the big Spiderman party planned. Caleb went with Marshall's dad and stepmom to their hotel for swimming while Marshall and I got the house ready (Ella was with my mom and Laura). We had a great turn out for the party and Caleb had so much fun. My mom and sister baked the cupcakes and cake (Laura did the decorating, mom did the baking)...it turned out so nice! The big present was a Spiderman bike from my parents. How exciting!! Caleb was just in awe of it for a few days afterwards...he kept saying "I really like my bike." He really enjoyed all his gifts and had a fun time playing with everyone at the party too. Marshall and I feel so blessed to have so many nice and caring people in our lives.


A few days after the party, Caleb had his 4 year check up at the doctor. He's doing great! He's 42 lbs and 42 1/2 inches. He's grown 2 1/2 inches since early childhood screening in July when he was measured at 40 inches tall. I knew he looked bigger to me! He got a couple shots but he was so brave. He didn't cry at all and just said "ow!" He did tell me later that he really didn't like those shots. My big boy!