February-March update!

Those first couple pictures are the kids on Valentine's Day this year.  I remember my parents always giving us a little Valentine's Day gift, so I've done the same for my kids.  They also had a party at daycare and exchanged Valetine's with their little friends.  They loved it! 

Caleb lost his 2nd tooth on February 17th!  It had been loose for quite awhile and finally he let Marshall help pull it out.  His top two middle teeth are also loose now...the Tooth Fairy will be making a lot of trips to our house coming up I guess! 

Other exciting news for Caleb...we had Kindergarten Registration in February.  We got to tour the school, which included checking out the library and a couple of the Kindergarten classrooms.  We also got to ride on a school bus.  That was probably Caleb's favorite part.  He was so excited the whole time and his enthusiasm was just fun to watch.  In the classrooms, the teachers did some activities with the kids and he just could hardly contain himself, jumping and yelling out the answers.  He is going to love school.  We just recently found out that he was accepted into the Kindergarten Plus program, which is all day long.  We choose to open enroll in District 16, so Caleb could either go to school with my mom or take the bus from daycare.  Going to the all day program, he'll go with my mom and attend the same elementary school I did.  I'm so happy about this..it will be nice to have him at school with Grandma and it also makes me quite reminiscent for my elementary years.  I loved Park Terrace and remember being so sad when it was time to move to middle school.  We also registered Caleb for a summer preschool class, Kindergarten Readiness.  It will be for two mornings each week mid June through mid August.  We are so glad Caleb will be able to do this program, I know he's ready for school but without being in a school setting before I worry about the social aspect of it all. I think this will help.  Since my mom and sister will be out of school for the summer, they'll be able to help transport him to class and back to daycare.  It's such a relief to have this work out!  We weren't able to have Caleb attend any traditional preschool because of work schedules during the year. 

Ella just loves her baby dolls...she's been really into being a little "Mommy" lately.  She likes to pretend to change them, rock them, feed them, push them around in her little stroller, put them to sleep in their crib..she even has a baby that goes in the bath with her.  It's so cute to watch her play like this!  I remember being amazed when Caleb first started to play pretend like this, too.  It's just one of many fun things about being a parent.   

Ready for rain!  Both kids love to wear rain boots (or farm boots, as they often wear these at the farm too).  We were up at the farm for the first time this year in March and the kids had a great time playing outside, we were lucky to have a really mild winter and some crazy warm temperatures in March.  It was in the 80s many days, which is just unheard of! 

I'm sad to share that we lost my Grandma Waldvogel in March this year.  She had been in good health, her normal busy bee self, living on her own and doing all kind of volunteer work in town.  However, on March 5 she had a stress test scheduled to check out her heart, she had been complaining of pain when she exerted herself, like bringing the garbage down to the curb and stuff like that.  She was so nervous for this test.  The test itself went fine but after her friend Betty brought her home, my Grandma collapsed and had a heart attack.  Luckily Betty was still at the house and was able to call 911 and start CPR.  The paramedics arrived and took Grandma to the hospital in Alexandria, where she was then taken by helicopter to St. Cloud Hospital.  Things were very touch and go for days.  The huge Waldvogel family surrounded Grandma at the hospital, taking turns staying through the night and praying for her.  For a few days, Grandma was alert enough to speak to us.  It was so comforting to hear her voice, to tell her how much she meant to us and how we loved her so.  And to hear her tell us the same.  Those moments are ones we will all cherish.  On March 15, surrounded by many loved ones, Grandma passed away.  It's been hard for us all to accept losing her so suddenly, but we know she's with Grandpa now and she's not in pain.  The heart attack and several other episodes at the hospital had been so hard on her body, she likely would not have made a full recovery anyway.  It was hard for me to explain this loss to my kids, Caleb especially, who has spent more time with Great Grandma.  He did very well with it all, though, he asked questions but I think he understood for the most part.  She will be greatly missed. 

Ella's 2nd birthday

Our sweet girl turned 2 on January 20th this year.  A couple days before her birthday, she had an accident at daycare.  Her little friend Lyla pushed her down and she fell on the metal gate that guards the stairway.  Her nose and mouth were pretty messed up.  It actually looked a lot worse than it was...and now we have the pictures to remember it by.  It healed up pretty well, though, you can still see the scar on her nose every once in awhile. 
To celebrate her birthday, we had cupcakes and presents after a dinner of breakfast food that night.  The day after her birthday, we had a party for friends and relatives, hosted at my parents' house.  I let Ella pick the "theme" and she choose Cinderella...so we had Cinderella decorations and a Cinderella birthday cake.  Auntie Dua made cupcakes as well, decorated with light blue sprinkles.  We had good food and lots of fun with our family and friends.  Ella received a lot of nice presents, clothes for summer and accessories for her babies, even a little Leap Frog laptop and her first Barbie doll..a Cinderella!  In the mail she got an art easel and supplies from Grandma and Grandpa from North Dakota (from Arizona now!)...she has loved that (and her brother as well).  It has a permanent spot in our living room and is used a lot.  Ella is following in her brother's footsteps and loving birthday parties (he would always get so excited for ANYONE's birthday..he still does!).  After her birthday she would walk around singing "happy birthday" to whoever! 
A few days after her birthday, she had her 2 year check up at the doctor's office.  Going to the doctor with Ella has always been an ordeal.  She basically freaks out during the entire check up.  She doesn't like getting on the scale, she doesn't like the doctor touching her in any way or even looking at her.  And of course, the shots...she especially doesn't like band-aids.  This visit was no exception, she hated it all.  She was actually screaming, Daddy!  Daddy!  during one point (Marshall wasn't with us, maybe he should come with next time!)  The doctor said she's looking great though.  She was 34 inches tall and 28lbs 15 oz. 
Follow the link to view more pictures from Ella's birthday!  Ella's 2nd birthday

Christmas 2011

Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year and it's even better with the kids...to enjoy it all through their eyes is just the best. We had another fun holiday season this year. First of all, the kids were so excited for snow...after our awful winter last year, we didn't know what to expect when it came to snowfall. Unfortunately for the kids, we barely had any snow at all this time. Just a dusting here and there that melted quickly.

The first weekend of December started off our holiday fun. The first Saturday of December is always the Rommegrot luncheon at the Mindekerken church in Minneapolis. My mom grew up attending this with her mom, I remember going with my mom and my grandma..and we are continuing the tradition. Caleb went last year for the first time and he went with again this year, along with my mom, Laura and Steph. He doesn't care for the rommegrot but he loves the Norwegian bread. This event really is not too fun for kids, but Caleb is so well behaved and patient..I'm glad to bring him with. That same day in the afternoon we went to see Santa at Andover Floral. Ella was a huge fan of Santa this year, pointing him out anywhere and saying 'Ho ho ho!' Caleb, on the other hand, has always been a little nervous about Santa and this year was no exception. He was nervous about this for weeks beforehand and kept saying he wasn't going, but he was worried about how Santa would know what to bring him. My mom and I were just in shock when he sat down with Santa, listened to a story and even gave him a hug! I could tell he was being so brave and it literally brought me to tears. Ella loved seeing Santa, of course. We ended up going to the Holidazzle parade that night too. This is the holiday lights parade in downtown Minneapolis..it started years ago, and I haven't been since I was a teenager. It was a lot of fun to do that again, really brought back memories for me! Caleb was kind of freaked out by the people in costumes in the parade but Ella just LOVED it. She sat on Grandpa's lap on the curb and he had to hold her back from walking into the street, she couldn't get enough! That next day we went to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. My parents, Laura and Joey & Steph have been doing this for years but we usually have our artifical tree. This year we decided to go for a real tree, too, and I am SO glad we did! It feels more like Christmas to have that real Christmas tree scent in the house, I think. We all went together and hauled the trees back in my dad's trailer. This is my new favorite Christmas tradition. It was so fun walking around looking for trees with the kids, watching Marshall cut it down by himself (and even losing Steph's camera when it fell out of my pocket..oops! We found it!). I can't wait to do this again next year. That night we decorated the tree and the kids had so much fun. I bought Caleb a little tree for his own room (we always had these as kids) and he loved decorating that, too.

The next weekend was my sister's 21st birthday! I could go on forever about how I can't believe Laura is actually 21...every year her birthday throws me for a loop because I just can't believe how fast the time goes. To celebrate we had a lot planned...her birthday was on a Sunday, so that morning we all got together for breakfast and mimosas (and bloody marys!) at my parents' house. The kids and I stuck around for awhile and we did our annual Christmas cookie baking. Ella had a great time helping out this year for the first time. That night we went out for dinner, too.

Every weekend in December was full of Christmas events...the third weekend was Christmas in Osakis. We went up for noon dinner with the Waldvogel family and it was nice to see everyone at Grandma's house. Caleb went up the night before and stayed at the farm with my parents.
The week before Christmas, we got some sad news about Marshall's uncle Roger (his dad's brother). He had been battling lung cancer since October and passed away. We decided to run up to Minot again for the funeral (we had just been there in October when Marshall's grandma- his dad's mom-passed away). It's a long trip but we had the time off from work and Marshall really wanted to be there for his dad, so we made it work. The kids stayed with my parents again and it all worked out fine..we got home the day before Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve we had dinner with Marshall's mom and stepdad and Chelsea. It was a quiet night and the kids had a great time opening gifts at their house. We had quite a surprise earlier in the day when Caleb lost his first tooth! That morning while eating breakfast he told me something was wrong with his tooth..we hadn't known it was even loose before then! I suppose he didn't know what was going on, since this was the first one. We hadn't really even talked about it yet because I wasn't expecting this to happen so soon. I have a group of friends with kids all born in September of 2006 like Caleb and none of them have lost teeth yet. So we were all very surprised, especially Caleb. He was super nervous about it and didn't want to eat. He kept telling me he'd be ok not eating for a few days. We kept encouraging him to wiggle it and it was getting really loose..finally Marshall took a look and it just popped right out, this was right before we were leaving for Christmas Eve dinner. I'm guessing it had been loose for awhile. Caleb just couldn't believe he lost a tooth! He kept exclaiming that over and over that night. He was pretty excited about the tooth fairy coming the same night as Santa! We let the kids open gifts from us Christmas Eve as well, and then had presents from Marshall's dad and stepmom, they sent them from Arizona. The highlight for Caleb was a pogo stick, for sure..he had been wanting this for a long time and was so excited to see it from Grandma and Grandpa. Ella just enjoyed opening up everything...she especially loves clothes. She got a pair of Elmo jammies and proceeded to whip all her clothes off and put them on right away, she loves them so much. The kids were ready for bed and anxious for Santa to come (and the tooth fairy)...Caleb put his tooth in a cup in his room and we left cookies out for Santa in the kitchen, along with a picture Caleb drew.

Caleb woke Christmas morning very excited because the tooth fairy left him a dollar in his room..also perplexed because the tooth fairy left his tooth! (The tooth fairy was not prepared for this and decided to leave the tooth instead of trying to get it out of the cup and risk waking Caleb up! I told him she probably thought his parents wanted to hang on to those for memories...it's in my jewelry box now). Santa left the kids a letter and mentioned the lost tooth...Caleb thought that was pretty neat..maybe the tooth fairy and Santa ran into each other in the middle of the night? Ella was her usual grumpy self in the morning and didn't get too excited about running downstairs to get stockings. She was mad when I tried to take any pictures of her. She warmed up though and the kids had a great time opening gifts from Santa. They both got new suitcases of their own and backpacks, among other things...that was a big hit! We went to my parents' house for breakfast and to open gifts there. I love this part of the day. It is so fun to see everyone's gifts and just enjoy the time with family. We had Christmas dinner later on with just my parents and Laura. We usually have my mom's side of the family over too but it didn't work out this year (we all got together on New Years Eve instead)...so we felt kind of lonely but we still had a good time. The kids played with a lot of their new stuff and we just hung around. My dad
was dealing with a kidney stone..this came on a few days before Christmas and he ended up in the ER (what a surprise phone call that was..I'm used to hearing about my mom's medical issues, not my dad!) so he wasn't feeling well because of all the pain meds..so it was a low key day but that was just fine!

Instead of posting all the pictures here, you can see them by following this link to my Snapfish album: http://www.snapfish.com/snapfish/shareereg/p=88731330790076183/l=14179270013/g=94853533/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/campaignName=ShareeNewReg_30FreePrints_2010Feb/otsc=SYE/otsi=SANR/pns/snapfish/share/p=88731330790076183/l=14179270013/g=94853533/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/campaignName=ShareeNewReg_30FreePrints_2010Feb/otsc=SYE/otsi=SANR/retusr=true

Caleb's 5th Birthday

I am way behind on posting pictures here...I just don't have the time anymore at work. I'm going to try and catch up with the major events of last year anyway. So Caleb turned 5 at the end of September. Birthdays have always been a huge deal for him, since his 2nd birthday he just has loved the parties and everything that goes along with it. He often brings up his different birthday parties...like his "fire truck party" (age 2) or his "tractor party" (age 3). He had been counting down for this one for awhile. I let him pick out the party 'theme' again and he chose Vikings football. He is his father's son! His birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so we planned the party for that day. He had a soccer game in the early afternoon, so we all went to that first, along with Marshall's dad and stepmom (Grandma and Grandpa from North Dakota according to the kids) who were in town for the weekend. After soccer he spent some time with them, going to Chuck E Cheese. We had a great party...my mom, Laura, Joey and Stephanie were a big help, as usual...we had all kinds of snacky food and I was really just so proud of everything! I did not inherit the party planning gene that the rest of my family has, so anything like this is a big ordeal for me. Most of my mom's side of the family was there, plus Marshall's parents and my friend Nicole and her family..our usual party group. It was a really fun day and Caleb got a lot of nice gifts...we are so blessed!

To check out more pictures, you can access an album through Snapfish by following this link: http://www.snapfish.com/snapfish/shareereg/p=846171329496298090/l=14102649013/g=94853533/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/campaignName=ShareeNewReg_30FreePrints_2010Feb/otsc=SYE/otsi=SANR/pns/snapfish/share/p=846171329496298090/l=14102649013/g=94853533/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/campaignName=ShareeNewReg_30FreePrints_2010Feb/otsc=SYE/otsi=SANR;jsessionid=3113CFA5C6EB0CFF8F65B69C20F9989C

Summer fun

Few more summer pictures...we tried to get outside as much as possible, which the kids loved! Ella had a great time in her little crab swimming pool, after she warmed up to it...she was a little nervous about it at first.

4th of July

Another post trying to catch up on picture sharing. :) Below are pictures from the 4th of July weekend at the farm in Osakis. We have pretty new tradition of Waldvogel Family softball on the 4th of July and we participated again this year. We start out at a big family picnic at my cousin Curt's house..then everyone heads over to the school softball fields and they organize a big game. Caleb LOVES this. He has so much fun playing with all the big kids and they are really good about helping him out. It was really hot, so those of us not playing we kind of miserable sitting in the sun and watching. Ella was crabby and she fell asleep on my sister for awhile. My mom and I ended up taking Ella back to the farm but Caleb stayed with Grandpa and Dua to play more softball..they played for hours! Fun family memories.

June: Father's Day/Back to the 50's

I'm trying to catch up with sharing pictures...so here's some from June. We celebrated Father's Day by having dinner with my family at my parents' house...everyone was busy that weekend with the Back to the 50's car show. The kids made cute picture frames at daycare, so they gave those to Marshall.

Back to the 50's...there's a huge car show at the MN State Fairgrounds every June, usually Father's Day weekend. My family always ends up working at the car show in some capacity. Family friends (Ted & Randi) are part of the MSRA (Minnesota Street Rod Association) and they take care the vendors for this car show. So my Dad helps out by working at one of the buildings during the whole show and my mom, sister and brother usually work too, at vendor registration or some other event. We haven't been to the car show for years; I grew up attending car shows all summer and it's not on my list of favorite things to do...but I figured Caleb is getting to the age where he might really enjoy this...so we headed down to the fairgrounds to check it out this year. We walked around, got a bite to eat, and met up with my family in front of my Dad's building. I think the most exciting thing for Caleb was hanging out on the golf carts that the staff uses. He ended up staying for the afternoon and coming home with my Mom..while Marshall & I headed out with Ella. She wanted to run around the whole time instead of ride in her stroller..and that didn't work so well.