VELDHUIZEN

Little Hole Big Lake Fishing Tourney

2010-04-16T15:35:00.002-05:00

Dave and I and Kylie and Uncle Ryan went to the Little Hole Big Lake Fishing Tournament at the end of February! Kylie definitely did not fish much, she was more interested in seeing what everyone else was doing :)

Singing the National Anthem (Kylie and Mason on the left)

Mason and Kylie

Even though he wasn't catching anything -- still having fun! :)

Off the ice we go -- Kylie's legs were tiiired...lol.

Dawson's first time playing in the snow :)

2010-04-16T15:23:00.002-05:00

Maybe I can get in to the groove of bloggin again...

2010-04-16T15:13:00.003-05:00

I'll start out by introducing you to our new addition Miley! Miley is a 1 year old kitty and we love her dearly -- she's great with the kids and Kirby. Kirby doesn't mind her whatsoever! :)

Sick :(

2009-11-10T11:17:00.002-06:00

In October, Kylie and I both got really sick :( I ended up with some sort of the flu (high temps, etc.) and a nasty respitory/sinus infection/who knows what else and was out of work for 4 days. Unfortunately, the following week, Kylie ended up with the same thing, high temp, coughing, really tired and the list goes on. She was out of school/daycare an entire week! Poor peanut was just miserable. It took a good 7-8 for it all to pass and for her to actually be up to par to do something. But as for her energy level as well as my energy level, it took a good 3-4 days to get through. Since, we've all been healthy though (knock on wood it stays that way!).

Wow, it has been FOREVER since I've posted!!

2009-11-10T11:04:00.006-06:00

I feel like I'm missing lots that has happened, but since I haven't posted in so long I'll just touch base on a few of the bigger things :)

Dawson turned 2 on August 16...and had a big birthday party will all of his favorite friends, including Mickey Mouse!!

He LOVES bike helmets! :)

His new ride!

This things got some tork!

In September, Kylie started Kindergarten every other day all day in Big Lake. It was a huge adjustment for her and for us, but I think we're getting better as time goes by! She really seems to like it...one of the things she said she doesn't like is gym class because when she runs around she gets sweaty! :) But she comes home everyday with a new song, it's so much fun! Here's a couple pictures of her first day at school :)

Waiting for the bus at Sheila's

She was so excited to ride the bus!!!

Bye Mom (yes, I totally teared up!) :(

Our first family vacation

2009-08-19T21:45:00.005-05:00

Last week/weekend, we took the kids to Wisconsin Dells for our first family (of 4) vacation! We went out there with my parents and stayed at the KOA Campground. My parents brought their motorhome and we rented a kamping kabin. It was a one room cabin with a double size bed and bunk beds and just enough room for our suitcases, Dawson's pack and play and one of our coolers and some other little stuff. But it was perfect for what we needed it for! PLUS, it had air conditioning...which we were very thankful for as it was the hottest its been in a month.

We got out there on Thursday afternoon and Kylie was dying to go to the Deer Park. So we got settled in a bit and then headed to the Deer Park. It was so cool and Kylie did real well and loved hugging the deer. Dawson on the other hand, was perfectly fine around them, but he thought it was funny to chase the deer, in which they didn't like, they'd take off the other way! But Dawson thought it was just hilarious...of course he was crossing the grounds in which he wasn't supposed to be too!

As we were driving back, Kylie saw a rollercoaster that she wanted to go on...of course, we stopped and checked the height requirements and she was tall enough and I ended up going with her. All I can say is, "I'm glad I have a head left." That rollercoaster whipped you around like no tomorrow...I was laughing so hard though that I couldn't keep my own head in control as I had my arm around Kylie trying to keep her from getting whip lash...but it was fun and she got off and said, Wow, I won't go on that again, but it was fun!

We made it back to the campground and had a bonfire and the kids both had an ice cream treat and we went to bed...we were all tired from the long drive over.

On Friday, we got up and walked town a bit and bought our tickets for the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory and Tommy Bartlett Show and the Original Ducks. Kylie got a really cute tie die shirt and got to pick out her own iron on decal to put on it. :) We did end up going on the Ducks that same day! It was a ton of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. The one thing that was not good is the smell...it's nasty! The engine smokes like crazy from going to land and to water. But it was a really cool trip and both the kids really enjoyed it!

On Saturday, we took off right away in the morning to Noah's Ark Waterpark. All I can say is, "what a blast" we had!!! Kylie surprised us in many ways...she would go on rides that Grandpa wouldn't go on, but shhh...grandpa's a chicken! :) We did get Grandpa to go on a few things though -- I did receive a few pics as well. We had so much fun though. We then went home and Kylie of course, wanted to go swimming, so Grandpa took her to the pool at the campground and we all got ready because that night we were headed out to the Tommy Bartlett show! We did the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory prior to the actual show and the kids really enjoyed this as well. When we arrived at the Tommy Bartlett show, Dawson was exhausted and didn't want to sit still. He struggled throughout the entire show...but we made it to the end. It was hard to get photos during this time as it was dark...but what an awesome show!

Sunday a.m., we got up and Dave and my Dad had packed a lot the night before, but we packed up the remainder of our gear on Sunday a.m. and headed for home! It was nice to go home, but it was a TON of fun in the Dells. Definitely on our list for next year :) On our way out of town, we stopped at The Lumberjack, which is also known as "Paul Bunyan". It's an all you can eat food place. You only get a choice of certain foods and that's it, but it wasn't to bad, we all got full anyways!

Here is a link to our photos! Obviously, these are all of them, but what a blast we had -- we'll definitely have to do this again :)

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1794244007/a=26588602_26588602/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Vikings Training Camp

2009-08-18T15:33:00.006-05:00

Dave and I had the opportunity to go to the Vikings Training Camp in Mankato on August 7. We took the party bus from Salida's Depot down there and had a ton of fun! Dave started drinking at mmm....7:30 a.m. Crazy I know! But, we made it down there and it was raining of course...so they played indoors. Come to find out the indoors facility was full and they weren't allowing anyone else to go in. So we were trying to be sneaky and stand by the doors where people come out and then we could sneak in...well that didn't work. So finally they said to line up outside the locker room and the players will come out when they are finished. So did just that and ended up getting some pretty good photos -- it was fun! :) **These are just some of the photos** Unfortunately, I wasn't to good about recognizing them not being in uniform either!

Dave drinking his beer ;)

Their bikes they ride back to the dorms

Ben Leber

Bryant McKinnie -- BTW, he wears a size 18 shoe!! I asked! :)

Jared Allen (to good to even wave)

Dave and Grant -- at the pavilion where we had our picnic after practice :)

We've had a busy last month...

2009-08-18T15:19:00.004-05:00

Kylie has started soccer at the end of July and loves it. It's two nights a week for one hour -- that one hour gets to be long, but after we started games last week, it goes much faster! I actually got suckered into coaching Kylie's team this year. Good thing friends of ours is also playing and we got rearrange the team a bit so Kylie and Rose could be on the same team and Rose's dad is helping coach which is great! Kylie has a hard time with me coaching at times...but she's getting better and I can honestly say is a great soccer player! Sometimes is a bit aggressive, but she's doing great! I'm hoping to get a video of her playing soon.

Kylie has also switched dance studios over the summer and took a couple summer classes -- the first one was three weeks 1x/week - Leaps and it was a good class...I definitely see potential with that class and it keeps her going a bit through the summer and then the second one she just finished last night and that also was a three week class and it was Hip Hop! Awesome class and definitely more Kylie's style. We'll stick with doing Tap/Ballet/Jazz this year and see what she wants to do next year and we may include Hip Hop as well -- below is a video of Kylie learning some moves :)

Kylie can officially ride her bike WITHOUT training wheels!

2009-07-21T11:54:00.007-05:00

This is one happy Mom and Dad reporting!! We have been waiting for this day and thought it would never come.

We have been practicing with Kylie on her "little bike" in the grass the last week and she's done well. Last night, she was at friend house (about 5 houses down) and Dave picked her up and brought the bike with and she rode it home!! I was able to witness it and couldn't believe my eyes! I was the giddiest Mommy in town -- I was SOO excited! My little girl can officially ride her bike without training wheels! It was soo exciting!!

We were able to get it on video as well as a few pictures! In this video -- towards the end, she puts her feet up on the middle bar of the bike -- trying to get fancy ;)

GREAT JOB KYLIE -- Mommy and Daddy are SOO proud of you!!

Fun, busy, but somewhat laid back weekend!

2009-07-13T10:45:00.008-05:00

On Friday, Kylie had her friend Madison sleep over and we took the kids to A&W for dinner...which we've never been and it was actually very good! :)

On Saturday, Dave was planning on bringing his bike into the shop to get repaired, unfortunately, it wouldn't start :( That was not a good start to his day! Hopefully, we can get it into the shop this week to get it fixed, so I have my husband back...this broken bike thing isn't going so well at our household.

We went to Anoka to pick-up my ring at Gould's (which BTW, it's beautiful!!), soo happy, I'm finally married again and then we noticed Anoka was having their Riverfest, so we spent some time down there and walked around to all the little booths. It was fun!

Downtown Anoka -- getting her face painted

Dave then dropped me off at my aunt Terri's house and my cousin Rhonda and I went to lunch with Auntie Terri at the Olive Garden. It took us three times to figure out where we wanted to eat!!! It was hilarious and we had a blast!!! Then I came home that afternoon, we set up the pool for the kids and the neighbor boys came over and played with Kylie for a bit. That evening, we had dinner and a bonfire with the neighbors, Brad and Mindy, at their house. It was fun -- we haven't done that in quite some time and we had a good time! :)

Those sparklers let off a lot of smoke!

Dave blowing smoke out of his ear (as always, hehe!) :)

Caden and Kylie (and you can kindof see Declan on the left there)

Then on Sunday, we were L-A-Z-Y and Dawson wasn't feeling well (sick with his nasty cold) and could have probably slept all day. We woke him up around 10 a.m.

Kylie though, that girl is up at 6:30 everyday, no matter what! We went to Walmart to get groceries and Target to get diapers, and DOH! the parade was going on in Monti AND I94 was shut down due to the gas tanker turned over, so traffic was herrendous!! But we managed to get it all complete. We came home, ate lunch and then decided to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for a bit...Grandma took Dawson while we took Kylie to see the new Ice Age movie. She loved it -- what a cute movie! It would have been great to see it in 3D, but we weren't sure how Kylie would do with that and the glasses for an hour and a half. My little big brother finally decided to move out of Mom and Dad's, so we got to witness his "goodbyes" to Mom and Dad...I bawled my eyes out! I'm so happy for him though :)

Overall it was a good weekend -- we didn't get the lawn mowed and we didn't get the house clean, but what's new... :)

Dawson's First Corn on the Cob

2009-07-10T08:52:00.003-05:00

He was getting so excited to eat it -- it was so cute! He wasn't sure how to do it at first as he just tried to bite into it on his plate and then we had to show him that he can pick it up :)

Dawson really likes sitting on his potty -- he hasn't gone potty yet, but likes to sit on it. So, he was sitting on it last night and kept getting up and running around with no diaper on, etc. I told him he was done and I brought him into his room to put a diaper on and he freaked out (he's becomming an old fan of diapers) and tried squirming away. I told him he then needed to go sit on the potty and not get up. So, the little stinker, sits on the potty and puts his shorts on...probably thinking if he puts his shorts on, he doesn't need to put a diaper on....hmm...sorry, not the case. But it was worth a shot on his behalf :)

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-10T08:34:00.006-05:00

We had a great 4th! On Friday, we got up and went to the strawberry patch for the first time in my life. It was awesome and a really good experience. We did catch the last day of strawberry picking at this patch. :) I think Kylie ate more strawberries than she picked and Dawson, not a fan quite yet. He didn't want to pick and just wanted to get out of there...lol. He was willing to "try" a strawberry, but it was very sweet and he threw it onto the ground. But we got our ten pounds of strawberries, went home and I actually made jam -- and it's REALLY good! :) We had a bonfire on Friday night (woke Kylie out of her bed and she did some sparklers and ate some smores).

On Saturday we got up and went to Avon, MN. My friend Alicia's dad lives on Upper Spunk lake in Avon and we were invited to attend their tradition of going to "Dad's" house! :) We had an absolute blast and the kids did too. They were able to just run, jump, play in the water and just have fun! We learned that Dawson loves fishing. He did not want to get off the dock -- we finally had to tell him the fishing pole was broken so we (Dave) could have a break.

Then on Sunday, we just hung out most of the day. Went to Cabela's in the a.m. to get my cousin's baby a cute little camo outfit and hat and later in the day I went up to Princeton to visit Sara and Den's little guy, Clayton! What a handsome little man! :)

Dawson's Hair

2009-06-29T14:21:00.004-05:00

Take a look at our little man's hair -- it is absolutely crazy! This was purposly done to stick straight up, but normally his hair is so curly and crazy anyways, we just had to enhance it a little bit!

Father's Day 2009

2009-06-24T15:20:00.003-05:00

We had plans to meet Dave's friend Kevin and his wife Val and their son Tyson at the Minnesota Zoo on Father's Day. Unfortunately, our little man was sick and had quite the fever! He was by no means himself and of course, our first instinct was strep since this is what I had last week. We did manage to go to Russell's for brunch, which was FABULOUS, the kids never eat much, but we sure did enjoy it and they have LOTS of choices to choose from. We then headed home and later in the day we had a chance to stop at my parents house to wish my Dad a Happy Father's Day and had dinner there. The kids, especially Dawson, from not feeling well, were exhausted and tired. It was super hot outside, so that definitely added to that fact. If we knew Dawson was going to hold up throughout the day, we would have went to the Zoo. We miss our friends (but will be able to see them this weekend when we travel to Albert Lea)!

When Dave was opening his Father's Day gift, it was in a Spiderman bag (the best part) and Kylie was like, you're going to love it, and as Dave was taking out the tissue paper, she's like, "its a Harley Davidson jacket"...lol. No surprises in our house! :) It was a "windbreaker/rain coat" in which I thought would have been a good coat to run around town with. Well we ended up taking it back and exchanging it for a different coat, which in turn, I really do like better and definitely know that Dave likes it better too :) So it all worked out perfectly!

I hope all of you Father's out there had a fabulous Father's Day :)

Kylie's first time in swimming lessons

2009-06-24T09:24:00.004-05:00

This has been the best $32 I've spent in a long time. She absolutely LOVES swimming lessons. The first time in the water was a bit scary and she wasn't sure how to get into the pool by herself, wasn't confident enough to hang onto the side of the pool or anything. But she's come a long ways in the week and a half she's been doing it. By the end of last week (3-4 days after being in lessons, she was jumping off the side of the pool) and as of yesterday, she got to jump off the diving board (with a life jacket on of course)! But she's doing great and I'm so very proud of her :)

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

2009-06-12T10:10:00.004-05:00

Dawson loves this show!! Kylie was outside playing with her friends and Dawson was bored (they have learned to entertain themselves quite well)...so we read some books and let him watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the computer. It was just too cute and he got a huge kick out of it!

YeeeeHaa!

2009-06-12T10:06:00.003-05:00

Lately, Dawson has been obsessed with the broom. So more or less the kids thought it was fun to use it as a horse! :)

A great weekend!

2009-06-01T15:54:00.006-05:00

Friday night, Kylie had a sleepover at our house with her friend Kristen. They were so darn cute, it took awhile for them to fall asleep, and then about 1/2 hour later, I could hear Kristen on the monitor saying, "Kylie, wake up, wake up!"...LOL! It was quite hilarious, but Kylie doesn't just wake up and unfortunately, I don't think Kristen had any luck waking her up.

Saturday, was yet, another busy day! Dave went down to my parents house right away in the a.m. and then the kids and I headed down there around 10:30 a.m. Dave had to cut down trees for my Dad and Grandma wanted Kylie to come over and help plant flowers and she did just that :)

Of course, Kylie and Grandma couldn't do it alone :)

Later in the day, we had an unexpected visit from Jamie and Lydia -- it was soo nice to see little Lydia -- she is growing :) She's soo darn cute and happy!!

Then after nap time for Dawson, we went to our friends house, Mike and Jodi's, for a BBQ. It was a ton of fun -- the kids were totally worn out when we left there. Here's a slideshow of the kids -- they are all so darn cute!

Subscribed?

2009-05-27T15:28:00.001-05:00

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Thanks and have a great day!

Our "family" bike ride and picnic at the park

2009-05-24T21:40:00.006-05:00

Kylie has been asking to go on a "family" walk as a family...lol. So, after we got up this morning, had breakfast and decided to take a "family" bike ride. Of course, Kylie wanted to ride in the bike carrier, but its obvious she's a tad bit to big for it, so the backpack with our lunches took her place along with Dawson of course. So Dave got the bikes out and ready, and I packed our lunches and off to the park we went. It was an awesome family day and I couldn't have asked for more! Here are some cute photos of the kids from our fun family trip to the park!

He discovered the slide was hot after he sat on it -- ouch!

He loves swinging!

We've had an awesome Memorial Weekend! The weather has been absolutley gorgeous and of course, I'm extremely sun burned. We could not have asked for a better weekend! Tonight, we had company over...a friend of mine Kristine and her husband Jerry and their son Nicholas. It was so great to see them and see how much Nicholas has grown. Him and Dawson weren't quite sure of each other, but definitely opened up to each other. Nicholas LOVED Kirby...he laughed everytime he walked by him. His laugh was so cute -- here are a few photos of the boys :)

Dawson tried to feed Nicholas a part of his cookie, and Nicholas literally pushed his hand away -- it was quite funny!

Nicholas thought it was hilarious to take Kirby's toy away from him -- Kirby didn't seem to mind at all and loved playing Nicholas' games :)

Nicholas LOVED Kirby!

Dawson's First Visit in a Lake

2009-05-24T21:25:00.007-05:00

Yesterday, May 23, we went to Fish Lake to visit the family and celebrate my aunt and uncle's 40th Anniversary. Dawson got to enjoy his first visit in the lake. He LOVED it. At first he wasn't quite sure what to think about the rocks and sand, but after he figured it out and after he figured out he could splash just like in the bath tub, he had no fear :)

He wasn't quite sure what to think

This water is cool....

Picking up rocks to of course, throw them.

Absolutely loving the water :)

Kylie's Dance Recital 5-17-09

2009-05-24T21:17:00.003-05:00

Kylie had her 2nd year end recital on Sunday, May 17, 2009. She did great and was absolutely beautiful as always :) Here are a few photos of her special day!

On our way to Monticello High School

Dancing to "Lollipop"

Kylie and her best friend Madison

Kylie and Mommy!

A few knitting projects I've completed

2009-05-12T12:20:00.004-05:00

I haven't updated the blog in a couple months. But thought I'd share quickly some of my projects I've completed.

Dawson had to be in the pic, but this is the tunic/dress I made for Kylie

Kylie's slippers

Look what Kylie did....

2009-03-25T21:25:00.004-05:00

She's been bugging us to get her hair cut short. Daddy has had a tough time with accepting this,but I finally just say yes. So I brought her up to the salon I go to and one of the girls had an opening and could get her in right away tonight. She was a bit afraid at first, but after a bit, she was quite excited and LOVED looking at herself in the mirror (as I was trying to not have the "scared" look on my face). It'll be so much easier for her to care for it during the summer. She was able to cut 10" off to donate to Lock of Love (http://www.locksoflove.org/). She is telling everyone that she is giving her hair to someone that needs it and to someone that is sick. She's just thrilled. I will be addressing the envelope and let her mail her hair herself. She's ADORABLE!!!!

BEFORE AND AFTER

She was SOO excited to be able to give someone her hair :)

Please Spring hurry!

2009-03-04T09:03:00.002-06:00

It's been a rough last week and 1/2. Dawson came down with pink eye early last week (first in one eye and then in both eyes) and then on Friday, Kylie got it! Good thing our clinic knows us and we didn't have to bring her in, they just called in a prescription for her! Then on Sunday, Kylie had it in both eyes!

Late last week, I came down with this NASTY cold...coughing and runny nose. It really kicked me in the butt came Sunday. I was misearable! I had plans to go and meet some friends at Gigi's in Mpls. on Sunday a.m., in which I was able to go, but by all means felt terrible and left early :( It's only gone downhill since then...I woke up Tuesday morning with a small cold sore that got bigger throughout the day and REALLY big on Wednesday morning when I woke up. I'm actually headed to the dr. to get some medicine for this thing!

Dawson woke up today, Wednesday morning, with pink eye AGAIN and IN BOTH EYES! I seriously cannot believe it! I know this stuff is contageous, but really?? Poor little guy -- both the kids are definitely feeling under the weather...they NEVER cry when I leave daycare and Monday morning, Kylie started crying and this morning, Dawson started bawling :( It just breaks my heart, I feel terrible leaving them. They aren't softy children normally, so when they "want me", I feel bad I cannot be there! But I know they are in GREAT hands with Sheila! :)

So lets hope we all get better soon!! This crud is no fun!!

Kylie had a busy week...

2009-02-23T10:48:00.009-06:00

last week. She had Kindergarten Round-Up on Thursday night and LOVED it. She was soo excited and thought it was soo cool to be able to see all the Kindergarten rooms and all the toys they have to play with. She also got to meet a few of the Kindergarten teachers, but was mostly excited about riding the school bus to and from school though!

I really think Kylie will do well in Kindergarten. She already made friends that night...there was another little girl named Kylie (but spelt Kylee) that followed my Kylie around everywhere! Her Mom's like she wants to be with the other Kylie -- it was too cute! But she's definitely a social butterfly and I am positive she'll do great!

Dave and I have decided to enroll Kylie into Kindergarten Plus - which is all day - everyday Kindergarten. Kylie will continue to go to Sheila's in the mornings and catch the bus at her house and then will go to school everyday and will take the bus to our house and Daddy will be there to get her off the bus! This will be a little different as she won't be at daycare all day everyday (until Summer), but I'm really looking forward to her being in school and think this is a great opportunity for her! :)

Also, Kylie experienced her first dentist appt. last Friday! We've tried this once before and unfortunately it didn't work out to well. So I had a referral to take her to a Pediatrics Dentist and it was the best thing I could have done! It was an awesome experience. She went into the office excited and then walked back to where the chairs are and literally clinched onto me. She was afraid -- really afraid. But what child wouldn't be when you see a chair and all these little tools surrounding it. The dental assistant was fabulous and got her to sit up in the chair and was able to show Kylie all the tools and what they did! Kylie did GREAT! She even got to wear a cool pair of sunglasses during her visit! :) Anywho, she ended up "skipping" out of the office saying, "this was fun!". So I too think she enjoyed her visit!

Dawson's 18 month check-up

2009-02-23T10:35:00.006-06:00

Last Monday, February 16, Dawson had his 18 month check-up! Dawson weighed in at 23 pounds on the button. That's a 6 oz. gain since his 15 month check-up and puts him in the 10% tile for his age. His height was at 31 1/4" (10%), that's a 1/4 inch taller than his 15 month check-up and his head circumference was 18 3/4 (25%) which was identical to his 15 month check-up. Other than him being small, he's right on track with things! He definitely liked to show off what he can do and also tried his hardest (with spilling of course) to drink out of a cup...lol! Dave is a little concerned that we're going to have a 6 foot daughter and a 5 foot son!! He believe's Mr. Dawson is taking after Grandpa Merrill! :)

So this "little man" has changed drastically in the last month or two...he's into everything!! He likes to dig in the garbage and take things out and bring them to us! Yes, it's NASTY...LOL! One other accomplishment -- no more baby gate...YAHOO -- he's up and down those steps constantly...and yes, we do need to watch him as he experienced over the weekend on eating Kirby's food, he started to choke and as soon as he coughed it came flying out. But we've had to put Kirby treats up and everything, because he's figured out the child locks on the cupboards and will give Kirby tons of treats and of course, Kirby's loving it!

He's also graduated from the highchair and is in a booster seat at the table! Yay -- that thing took up soo much room...it's so nice to have our kitchen back to normal! He thinks it's pretty cool and feels like a big boy!

We're really looking forward to the summer with him -- he's going to be on the go all the time! This little guy will love the outdoors! :)

Our Family Getaway

2009-02-17T13:43:00.025-06:00

On Thursday, February 12, 2009, we took a family vacation up to Alexandria, MN. Dave nor I have never been past St. Cloud on I94 before. Don't get me wrong, there is not much to see, but both of us were quite curious as to what we would see up that way. It felt as if we were going to Albert Lea (farm land)! The drive from our house was approximately an hour and half. It was bad at all...before you knew it we were there (I did knit almost the entire way though). When we found our hotel (Arrowwood Resort), we unloaded our stuff in our room, relaxed for a few mins. and ate our packed lunch we made before we left home and tried to figure out what we were going to do first. Unfortunately, the waterpark wasn't open until 4 p.m. and we got an early check-in, so we were there around 12:30 p.m. We decided to go and check out some other things...and ended up at the Snow Center. Inside the Snow Center, they have board games, crafts at certain times, movies to watch and for outdoors, you can rent snowmobiles, ice skates, cross country skis and can use their downhill sleds. With all the rain we've gotten in the last week or so, we were unable to ice skate as their pond wasn't in too good of shape. But, we did get to enjoy sledding! The kids had an absolute blast!! Here is a slide show and a video of Kylie. I've never laughed so hard in my life!

Then after we did our sledding outside, we went back to our room and shut the shades and took a nap! Dawson definitely still needs his daily naps. :) When we got up, we ordered pizza and felt like we waited FOREVER for it and then after we got dinner cleaned up we headed to the Waterpark!

The kids were beat after the waterpark, but we ended up getting ice cream from the concessions and bring it back to our room to eat. Then the kids hit the hay. I got the pleasure to sleep with wacky sleep girl Kylie both nights! :) She wasn't too bad sleeping until she'd hit me in the face with her flying hands!

Then on Friday, the kids were up at 7:30 and we headed to Perkins for breakfast and then made our way to the Harley Dealer. Of course, we didn't come out empty handed...I got two t-shirts, Dave got a button-up shirt and a pair of cowboy boots (in which the kids thought were fun to wear) and each of the kids got a little toy motorcycle (kindof like a matchbox car). But EVERYTHING we got was on sale...we felt like we robbed them when we walked out of that store, we couldn't believe it!

Since the Waterpark didn't open until 4 p.m. on Friday either, we decided to take the kids bowling! It was a ton of fun and we had to contain Mr. Dawson to a high chair by us, otherwise, he would not stay near, he loves to run and check things out.

After bowling, we headed back to our room and ate some leftover pizza for lunch and we all laid down and took a nap! It was soo nice! Then Dave got me up shortly before my massage. I scheduled a massage earlier in the day for 3:00 p.m. It was just a nice 20 min. massage (my Valentine's Day gift), but it felt fabulous! :)

Then after I got back, we hit the Waterpark again and then went out for dinner and headed back home to sleepy land! The kids were just beat!

On Saturday morning, we got up, ate some breakfast at the Lake Cafe, which is attached to the hotel and then packed our stuff up and headed home! The kids were GREAT on this trip and did soo well. Dawson was getting a bit fussy, but he was completely out of the norm with everything so its expected a little bit. But we had a great family getaway and will definitely go back!

Knitting update...

2009-02-15T20:44:00.005-06:00

here are a few of the projects I've completed...I'm still working on a couple different things too, but these three I've started and finished :) I've also completed a pair of legwarmers for my godchild, Lydia!

Hat for Kylie

Hat for Dawson

Legwarmers for Kylie

Legwarmers for Lydia

Dawson playing catch

2009-02-12T08:33:00.003-06:00

He loves to throw things...especially his ball. The other night I came home from work and he's saying "ball", "ball". I look and he's throwing around an orange -- yes, an orange!! I said that's not a ball that's an orange. But he still felt the need to constantly throw it down the steps...lol.

Dawson's experience with a strawberry

2009-02-11T20:49:00.006-06:00

It was quite funny -- he didn't know what to think at first and was making all sorts of faces...

This isn't soo bad....

Umm...yeah, its a little tart...

I'm done with this thing.

Fishing with Dad

2009-02-11T20:43:00.003-06:00

Dave's been fishing quite a bit this Winter...a couple weeks ago, he took Kylie out for the first time -- she had a blast -- I don't think she would have been out there for 3 hours if she wasn't catching anything. The next day Dave just went to a local lake and me and the kids met him out there and he caught a tiny little sunny that the kids thought was pretty cool....

Kylie was hanging onto the fish until it decided to flop out!

The fish came to Dawson :)

More pictures to come from Kylie's fishing experience with daddy!

We may have a lefty...

2009-01-28T19:12:00.004-06:00

Mr. Dawson refuses to write with his right hand...we may have a lefty! Most of the time he eats with his left hand too! Auntie Sharon...he may be taking after you :)

A new hobby for Jen

2009-01-20T20:54:00.002-06:00

So I picked up a new hobby! I've learned to knit -- I'm so excited! Its soo fun and RELAXING! I've only completed one project in the last 2 weeks. A dishcloth! I'm working on another project and came to find out over the weekend, Dawson took my needle out of the stitches, so now I have to bring it into work and hope someone can fix it! I'll be posting my projects as I finish them. My goal for sure is to be making the kids' hats for next year -- YAHOO!!!! So if you're looking for any gifts for me (hehe!), knitting it is!!

Dawson's first experience...

2009-01-20T20:51:00.006-06:00

WITH KETCHUP AND HE LOVED IT!!!!!!

MOM, WHY DO YOU HAVE THE CAMERA AGAIN??

THIS IS GOOD!!!

THIS IS REALLY GOOD!!!

MLK Day!

2009-01-20T20:39:00.004-06:00

Both Dave and I had Martin Luther King day off -- so we decided to take Kylie snowtubing at Powder Ridge in Kimball. Neither Dave or I have ever been snowtubing so we weren't quite sure what to expect. It was the perfect day to go -- the weather was great! We had a BLAST!!!! Kylie was quite the brave girl -- the first two times we all went down together and after that she wanted to go by herself...and she did! It was awesome family time :)

What a week...

2009-01-09T08:22:00.003-06:00

It's been a tough week as everyone has been sick with the stomach flu. :( Mon"day" was fine and but Monday "night" was very very long, Kylie said she wasn't feeling well and ended up with the stomach flu...so she slept on the couch in the upstairs living room while I set up camp on the floor next to her. Dave had called into work that night knowing he had to stay home with her. I think Kylie finally fell asleep around 10:30 - 11 p.m. for the night.

Around 2 a.m. Dawson woke up crying. I went in there and he had puked all over in his crib, he had it in his hair, on his jammies, well you get the point. Poor little guy...was crying so hard, he just kept puking :( So we ended up going through about 3 pairs of jammies, two crib sheets and he had a bath at 2:30 a.m. I brought him to the living room with me, moved Kylie back to her room, since I thought she was in the clear and Dawson and I crashed on the couch watching Baby Einsteins for about an hour when he woke up again and after that round, he was up for a little bit and I put the gate up so he wouldn't go to far as he seemed like he wasn't going to go back to sleep and no more snuggling (I got a little out of him though). I was just exhausted and fell asleep on the couch and when I woke up to my alarm at 5:30 (because initially I was planning on going to work) and saw Dawson snoozing with his butt in the air on the living room floor.

I of course, stayed home with Dave, because I knew there would be no way I'd be able to function on a couple hours of sleep. So I went back to sleep at 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. The kids recovered by morning and were doing much better!

We got a call yesterday from daycare at 6 a.m., so I knew something was wrong...I answered the phone, "uh oh"...Sheila's like yeah, she's been puking since 1 a.m. (her daughter MaKayla). So the kids went to back-up daycare yesterday, which is just acrossed the street...which is nice and convenient.

AND TODAY, lovely Dave is home not feeling well either. So lets hope he gets better TODAY, so we can still have our date night tomorrow! Yes date night, I have a massage scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at Salina's in Elk River and we have dinner reservations at 4:30 at Rockwood's in Otsego and then we're going to go and see Marley & Me or the new movie that just came out today, Grand Torino.

Have a great weekend all and I'm hoping to update with some photos soon!

Back to the grind...

2009-01-05T11:59:00.003-06:00

A full week of work -- what's that??? Its the start of a new year...I cannot believe it (and I got a cold...ugh!)! Time is flying so fast and the kids are getting soo much older. I cannot believe that Kylie is going to start Kindergarten this year -- what a heart wrencher I tell you! She's really ready for school...she's spelling really well (3 letter words mostly) and spelling names is a huge thing too -- she does great and is really interested in learning! I think school will be great for Kylie! Kylie is still in dance one time a week and expressed interest in Cheerleading as well...so I think I'll sign her up for that...which starts in March I believe. It's one time a week as well on Mondays. So Mondays and Tuesdays will be busy with Kylie in extra activites! :)

As for Dawson -- he's learning and talking soo much more these days! Instead of just putting his hand up in the air to say "Hi" or "Bye", he's trying to start to use his fingers to say it and he's starting to say more words and definitely understands what we're saying and its so much fun! You ask him to pick something up and bring it to you (i.e. his shoes/socks) and he knows exactly what you're saying! I love it! He's also likes to laugh at himself...lol. He'll be playing with his cars or something...and just start laughing at them. It's too hilarious! He also figured out his 4-wheeler he got for Christmas!! He absolutely loves it and knows to push the button and he'll go -- so he does just that and has soo much fun -- a video to come! :)

I hope everyone has a great new year!!

The first and hopefully the last...

2009-01-02T11:16:00.002-06:00

I went to the store last night to get my Dyson vacuum cleaner (YAHOO!) and gave Dave a call on my way home and come to find out, Dawson fell down the steps. We have a split entry home, and from the top of the steps to the entry way is about 12 steps...OUCH! We've had to keep an good eye on him...because he'll run up to the steps (if the gate isn't up) and usually stop...but as I've been saying, one of these times he's going to fall so we need to make sure the gate is up...he's a very daring little boy and will push his limits!

Daddy told Kylie to take the gate down, so she could go to her room and get her jammies on and that Daddy would put the gate back up when he was done changing Dawson...well he just let Dawson down and he headed straight for the steps...Dave barely got Dawson's clothes in his hamper and he heard a thunk...and Dawson was at the end of the steps crying! Good thing he wasn't hurt...he had a little bump in the middle of his forehead, but it didn't seem to bother him. I got home and he acted like nothing ever happened...definetely a boy I tell you! This is coming from a child that will run his head into the wall and laugh...lol...and he'll stand behind the rocker and wait for it to bonk him in the head and then look at you and laugh! I'll get it on video sooner or later!! :)

New Years Eve and New Years Day

2009-01-02T10:54:00.008-06:00

We didn't do anything special for New Years Eve this year -- just hung out at home and tried to get some stuff done around the house -- including fixing our washing machine! Finally...it amazing when you relize how much you really use something when you don't have it. So now, this weekend, time to get caught back up with laundry!

New Years Eve, we let Kylie stay up a little later than normal - 10 p.m. and her and I sat on the couch and shared a little bucket of sherbert ice cream, nummy!

Before Dawson went to bed...I was able to get a video clip of him "jumping"!

On New Years Day, we got our Christmas tree down and Kylie and I got to enjoy some time outside playing in the snow, with Kirby of course! Poor puppy is getting old...he was so sore last night from playing outside! He could barely walk up the steps and jump up onto our bed.

Kylie barried my legs

Kirby Birby!!

We barried Mom's legs again and Kylie's giving me bunny ears!

We also took a trip to Walmart to return a couple of things and of course, nonetheless, here's goofy Kylie -- she's trying on these reading glasses and she's like says, "awww...I can't see anything" and is like spinning in circles and then takes them off and is says, "woofta, I can see again!"....and has to pick the ugliest ones off the shelf too...LOL! :)

Christmas with Nana and Papa

2009-01-02T10:36:00.002-06:00

On Friday, December 26, we headed down to Nana and Papa's house in Albert Lea. Nana and Papa have a big hill in their backyard and the kids love to sled down it. So Dave and Kylie and Dawson brought their appropriate clothing to go sledding -- this was Dawson's first time sledding -- but he had a blast!!!!!

Christmas Morning and Christmas Day

2009-01-02T10:09:00.007-06:00

Miss Kylie did not get out of bed until 8:30 a.m. on Christmas morning...I think she's a little to young for her body to get so excited quite yet and doesn't understand that it's normal to get out of bed at 5 a.m. to see if Santa came...lol! So she came into our room all excited...and seriously ran to the living room and wanted to start ripping apart gifts...but we had to wake Dawson up, he was out like a light. Dawson had no clue what to think and was probably wondering why Kylie was soo excited!

After we got things somewhat cleaned up and of course, played with some toys, we got ready and headed down to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Anoka. It was seriously another Christmas morning all over, PLUS some! The kids got soo many toys...but they are all super fun and lots of fun! Dawson got a few bigger things...his Thomas the Train train track and Elmo couch (in which he's a huge fan of now) and my Aunt Terri bought him a push button 4-wheeler with forward and reverse -- in which he didn't quite figure out right away, but it didn't take long! :)

Grandma and Grandpa got a collage calendar from Dawson and Kylie. Grandpa got the luxery of opening it and as soon as he opened it, he literally suckered it up and thought it was the coolest thing ever...we had to ask if Grandma could even see it...LoL. He said this is so cool and is coming to work with me...so therefore, we need to make Grandma one for her work too! I had to track down the calendar so Grandma could see it -- Grandpa already had it in his lunch box ready to go!!

Christmas Eve at the Heurung's

2009-01-02T09:53:00.003-06:00

Alright, so it's taken me a bit longer to post than I thought...but be ready to read -- I will be posting from Christmas Eve through the New Year! :)

We started out our Christmas by having Christmas Eve at the Heurung's. My kids and Brynn exchange gifts and of course, Grandma's buy gifts for the kids too. The kids seriously got soo much stuff -- Kylie got a 400+ kit of tattoos and body art and absolutely LOVES it...this girl is seriously obsessed with tattoos and Dawson got a Cars chair and a remote controlled Tonka car that flips and does cool things and the Gears toy (in which is LOVES) and LOTS of other things too (its to hard to keep it all straight).

Kylie showing off her "body art"

Dawson being silly as always!

Grandpa and Dawson cuddling -- he was getting tired!

Kylie's thoughtful ways of giving gifts...

2008-12-23T10:23:00.004-06:00

On Sunday morning, Kylie came into my bedroom, while I was sleeping and said, "Mom, I think there's a present under the tree for you -- you should get up and open it." I said, "but it's not Christmas yet." She says, "It's ok, it's a fake present."....LOL! said, "Ok, let me sleep a little longer." She comes in about 5 minutes later...

"Mom, get up and open your present." I rolled out of bed and went to the tree and she gives me my present (in the meantime Dawson woke up too) -- it's wrapped and taped all the way around...and as I was holding this I was wondering what in the world?? I started opening it up and SURPRISE, it was my cell phone...LOL!!!

She says," see Mom, I told you it was fake." -- "DO YOU LIKE IT?" I said, "of course, I LOVE IT -- THANK YOU SOO MUCH!!!!"

Then we proceed with Dawson -- she gives Dawson two wrapped presents...one in wrapping paper and one in a piece of copy paper and Kirby wanted to help too -- so he grabbed one and started ripping it and Kylie freaked...but Dawson started on the other...and WAAALAAA it was two "My Little Ponies"! Dawson looked at me like, "what is this Mom?" He didn't know what to think. BUT, Kylie was quite excited about it...LOL!!!

Then it was Daddy's turn....and umm...yeah, Daddy's gift was no where to be found (Dave remembered her wrapping it). Dave says to Kylie, "umm...Kylie where's Daddy's gift...that's a very important one, we should find it." She says, "it's downstairs, you stay right here and I'll go get it." So she goes downstairs, grabs another piece of copy paper and the tape and a pen and I helped her wrap Daddy's gift. She gives it to him...and it's taped all over the place. He starts opening it and notices its HIS cell phone...he started jumping up and down, and saying, "thank you SOOOO much Kylie, this is exactly what I wanted -- How did you know this is what I wanted." and Kylie was just laughing!

So we had a very eventful Sunday morning that was just hilarious and Kylie put lots of thought into this morning :)

**I'm STILL laughing over this!

Guitar Hero "Rockstars"

2008-12-21T21:34:00.003-06:00

Last night Dave was playing Guitar Hero on PS3 and Kylie was playing along with her Barbie guitar and totally getting into it -- it was hilarious :)

Kylie got her hair cut in a salon...

2008-12-21T21:28:00.001-06:00

YAHOO!!! For the first time ever, Kylie finally got her hair cut in a salon. I've cut her hair 2-3 times since she's been 3 and we've attempted to have it cut in a salon but its never gone over too well in the past. I've heard some good things about this place called, "The Jungle" in Elk River and they have these little playground animals (as chairs) for kids and they have movies to watch while they are getting their hair cut -- it's fabulous!! We didn't get a whole lot cut off as we still like it long, but thank the lord we can now get it cut more often :)

As I mentioned in an earlier post...

2008-12-21T21:12:00.003-06:00

Dawson loves to play in the cupboards and underneath the sink when I take the garbage out (and yes, he has his book in there with him...lol) :)

Promised Pictures!

2008-12-21T21:04:00.004-06:00

Kylie and Dawson with Santa

Kylie's Christmas dance recital - Dec. 13, 20o8

Kylie and her friend Madison

Kylie and her friend Kristen

A few other highlights...

2008-12-18T10:20:00.011-06:00

The kids got to meet with Santa on Dec. 2. Dave took the day off (his birthday too!) and I took Kylie to work with me on the bus and let her have a fun day with Mom and Dave came downtown around 11:30 and we headed over to Macy's for their spectacular event "A Day in the Life of an Elf" and then met with Santa afterwards. Kylie told Santa that she was a REALLY big doll house and a pink elephant (not sure where this came from) and that Dawson wanted a really big truck that goes really really fast. As for sitting on Santa's lap, Dawson wasn't quite sure -- he tried to squirm his way out as Kylie sat on the drum next to Santa (picture to come). But I was quite proud as she was still able to tell him what she wanted -- we're progressing every year :)

My friend Kelly had baby Lauryn on December 8 (yes, I now know 4 people with this birthday and two were born this year, hehe) and she weighed in at 8 lbs. 15 oz. and 22" long! I finally got over there last night to visit and she's absolutely gorgeous -- she's got a full head of hair and her face is soo pretty -- she already looks older than she really is.

Kylie had her Christmas dance recital on December 13, 2008 and Grandma, Grandpa and Grandma Denis came to watch. It was a lot of fun and Kylie looked beautiful as always! :) She is doing really well this year and really getting into it. This is her second year of dance and she's really enjoying it! (Again, pictures to come -- I haven't had time to get them uploaded.

This last Monday, we had some nasty snow storms come through and Dawson only allowed us about 4 hours of sleep, so I ended up calling into work and kept the kids home with me and around 9:30 a.m., Dave rolled in and said his crew didn't show up, so we had a nice family day at home. Kylie and I baked peanut butter/hershey kiss cookies and Dave baked his chex mix -- we had a really fun day!

As for the upcoming holidays, we have a busy few days (as if it hasn't been busy all month, LOL)...on Saturday, Grandma is taking the kids so we can get some gifts wrapped and then that afternoon, we have Christmas at my Aunt Ivette's house in Anoka with my Mom's side of the family and then on Sunday morning, we're headed down to Albert Lea to celebrate Christmas with the Sletten's (Dave's Mom). With Kylie getting into the whole entire Santa thing now and Dawson not far behind, we've decided we will be staying close to home for Christmas Day. I'm super excited for this year as its Dawson first year hopefully opening gifts and now that Kylie is a bit older, she totally gets into it. :)

If I don't get to post prior to Christmas -- I hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas!!

Dawson's 15 month check-up

2008-12-18T10:12:00.002-06:00

Dawson went into the dr. for his 15 month (15 1/2) check-up on December 5 -- he weighed in at 22.4 lbs. (25%), which is a 1.5 lb. gain from his 1 year check-up. As for his height and head circumferance, they were both in the 25% tile as well...so he's seriously a little runt to us...Kylie was always in the 75-90% tile for everything all along. He finally completely graduated from his 6-9 month pants and is in a solid 12 month pants (with some pants still big in the waste) and 12-18 month shirt...yahoo! Otherwise, he's doing really well and is right on track with things. He got to show the dr. all sorts of tricks he does now :)

His new thing is to crawl underneath the sink cupboard where the garbage can goes...as soon as Dave or I pull the garbage can out to take it out, he's right there ready to get in...it's really funny (picture to come). He's starting to really interact with Kylie and she's really enjoying his company these days...they play so well together (most of the time) and yes, Kylie will literally run from one end of the house to the other and Dawson will chase her and just laughs...they both find that hilarious!! Dave and I just sit back (usually) and watch them, it's so much fun to watch them interact and watch Dawson learning each and everything that Kylie now does...he catches on quite quickly and is starting to copy everything she does :)

It's been a long time since I updated...

2008-12-14T21:15:00.012-06:00

...I don't even know where to start with updating!!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Dave's Dad's house in Sioux City, IA. When we got there on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, we went bowling and then had a great dinner on Thursday and got up nice and early (3:45 a.m.) to go shopping on Black Friday!! We actually ended up leaving a bit early as Dave was not feeling well. We came home Friday night, but were planning on staying until Sat. But we did manage to stop on our way home at the home of the Blue Bunny Ice Cream! The kids and I and Dave, of course, had fabulous ice cream cones (Dave just had a little as he wasn't feeling well).

Christina, Kylie and Casey Jo

(Christina and Casey Jo are Dave's little sisters)

Grandma Semple and Dawson

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we got our Christmas lights put on the house and our Christmas tree up! It's beautiful. This is our first year with a fake tree...unfortunately with Dave and Kylie's allergies, we're unable to get a real tree anymore :( But we were fortunate enough to get a tree from my aunt and uncle and it's big and beautiful -- we love it :) Kylie had a blast being able to help decorate and thought it was really cool putting her own ornaments on the tree! But I was really in the spirit early this year, I was super excited to get the tree up and couldn't wait to get it done! We also got a lot of our Christmas shopping done early too! Now, we just have to find time to wrap! :)

Update on Weight Watchers!

2008-11-26T10:39:00.000-06:00

I wanted to post that Weight Watchers is still going REALLY well -- I just weighed in for the third week and I was down another 2.5 lbs. :) That's a total of 7.5 lbs. in 3 weeks!! I'm totally pumped!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Quick updates!

2008-11-25T08:55:00.003-06:00

I just looked at the blog and realized its been 10 days since Dawson started walking -- he has progressed soo much! He's walking from room to room to room and he's working on standing up from not holding onto anything. In the last couple of days, he's figured out that he can walk on his knees!! :)

He also has learned the word "that"! If he wants something he'll say "that". LOL! It's quite hilarious...I figured he picked it up from us, saying, do you want that? What do you say if you want that? What is that? But he's totally able to identify items and identify things that he wants. He'll bring us right to what he wants. If he wants milk, he'll go the fridge and try to open it...lol. If he wants a banana (seriously his obsession!), he'll walk over to the counter with his arms up and say, "that"!

This morning, Dawson was in the kitchen with Dave while he was making his lunch and Kirby barked because he needed in and Dave says to Dawson, is Kirby outside? Dawson seriously walked over and kindof peeked his head around the counter corner (under the breakfast bar) and pointed and said "that" and then waived "HI"!!! We laughed and thought that was soo cool! :) He's learning so fast -- it's like a month ago, he wasn't walking and now he's walking, talking and acknowledging things and dancing like crazy! It's so much fun!

As for Miss Kylie -- she also is growing up so darn fast! Her imagination is running like crazy and she's constantly telling us stories! She loves to play waitress and loves to pretend play in any way she can! She's going through a phase right now, that she's afraid of the shadows in her room...so we've tried to do some rearranging in her room to avoid some of the shadows, but its quite hard to do. So we've started to make things in the shadows to make it fun for her instead of frightening.

This coming up weekend, we are headed to Dave's Dad's house in Sioux City, Iowa. Kylie is super excited, she loves playing with Dave's two little sisters! It's about a 6 hour drive from our house, so this will be both of the kids' longest drive/ride in the car. We'll see how they do and the Kirby is off to see his friends for 4 days -- he loves going to the kennels :)

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

Walking video -- check it out :)

2008-11-15T13:11:00.002-06:00

We have a walker!!!!

2008-11-14T11:03:00.002-06:00

Mr. Dawson is officially walking!!! YAY!!!! Last night, everytime he fell he managed to try and make it back up to his feet. I will post a video after I upload it, but he was walking from the couch in the living room to the dining room -- about 15 feet :) He's learning to catch his balance and everything -- we are soo excited...I just cannot believe it, I thought I'd never see this day come!!! He looks like such a big boy when he walks too...aww...I love these moments! Anyways, thought I'd share and I'll share a video this weekend -- so check back for another update!

Have a great weekend!!

Halloween 2008

2008-11-11T14:48:00.002-06:00

My parents came up for Halloween this year -- Dave and I took the kids out and Mom and Dad handed out candy at our house! It worked out really well -- I guess after Kylie had her tempertantrum and decided she initially did not want to go trick-or-treating. But then decided if Daddy took her out, she'd go and she had a blast! The weather was perfect -- it could not have gotten any nicer out. It kindof stunk though, we didn't get started until around 6:30 or later. I liked daylight savings before Halloween instead of after! :)

Here are a few pictures of the kids and Kylie and her friend Kristen and her brother Josh:

It's been awhile...

2008-11-11T14:23:00.002-06:00

since I've posted! I wanted to update everyone and let you know that I'm back on Weight Watchers Online! I'm super excited and after almost a week, I'm already feeling better about myself. It's going to be extremely hard to change my ways and I know this, but am fully confident that I can do it! It's been a long year since Dawson's been born and I finally feel "READY" that I can do this! :) I will try to keep everyone posted on my fabulous progress!

Over the last week, the kids have came down with some yucky cold. Last week, Tuesday (Election Day), I took the day off, since the kids didn't have daycare, I thought it would be a great day for a Mommy day with the kids. We got up, played a bit, went and voted, I stopped at the park on our way out of town, so they could play a bit and then we dropped a couple bags off at Goodwill. We then had a nice lunch with Jamie, Lydia and Elizabeth. :) The kids were completely exhausted when we got in the car after lunch. When we got home, I put them back to sleep in their rooms and Kylie just did not want to get up. I finally got her up around 4:00 -- to try and eat some dinner before dance that night. We got to dance and she just wanted to "cuddle". She had no desire to dance...did not even step foot on the dance floor. So I ended up taking her home and discovered she had a 103 degree temp. I, of course, felt terrible for taking her out of dance upset because she wouldn't dance :( But we then got her some medicine and snuggled a bit. She ended up staying home from daycare on Weds. with Dave and has been doing a bit better as time goes on. She still coughs quite frequently while sleeping, but we've also been doing her nebulizer a couple times a day, in which I hope to think helps :)

As for Dawson, he has had a runny nose since the weekend and part of late last week and finally yesterday, he got hit with the cough and its nasty!! Poor little guy. He still seems to be in high spirits for the most part. But when he wants to go to bed, he wants to go now! He did snuggle a bit last night, which was nice, because this little guy does not snuggle.

Oh yes and I have to post photos from Halloween yet! :)

Pumpkin Carving Time!

2008-10-31T09:39:00.005-05:00

Last night, we carved pumpkins in the garage! We hauled out Dawson's highchair and pulled out the card table and chairs and we had a jolly ol' time carving pumpkins. Dawson had a great time eating the pumpkin guts (not much as he wasn't to fond of it) and a few seeds...lol. Again, another great family night -- it was soo much fun and the kids just laughed and played and were happy, which makes it SOO much more enjoyable :)

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-31T09:29:00.004-05:00

This years pumpkin patch was soo much fun! It was really great family time! The kids are at that age, where they are just soo much fun and funny!! Kylie is such a great big sister to her brother and its so nice that they are so close!

Kylie and Dawson

Dawson loved the pumpkins!

He was SOO happy and had so much fun!! :)

Off in the corn maze we go!

Dave wanted Kylie to join him in eating this pumpkin! :)

Kylie's Halloween Party at Dance!

2008-10-31T08:48:00.002-05:00

On Tuesday, October 28, Kylie got to wear her Halloween costume to dance class! The first half of the class was their normal routine and the second half they had a Halloween party. Here are a couple photos of her dance friends. :)

Kylie's Dance Friends (left to right)

Rose, Kristen, Madison and Kylie

Singing Dawson...

2008-10-26T20:50:00.003-05:00

Our weekend in Wisconsin

2008-10-26T19:40:00.024-05:00

This weekend, we went to Wisconsin for my cousin Angela's wedding (my dad's side of the family). We got up early on Sat. a.m. and the wedding was at noon, so we left our house a little after 7 a.m. to get Kirby to the kennels (his favorite place to go, seriously!) and then headed down to my parents house to follow them. Kylie stayed the night at Grandma and Grandpa's on Friday night so it was easier for us to get out the door on Sat. a.m. It worked out really well.

(Dawson pretending to drive -- it was quite hilarious)

We got to Wisconsin around 10:40 and checked into our hotel in Ladysmith and then unloaded a bit and headed to the church in Sheldon (about 20 mins. away). It was really nice to see all the family -- we see them a couple times a year and that's usually when they come to MN.

There was quite a gap in between the wedding and the reception, so we went to the local bar and picked up a pizza to go and went back to our hotel room and ate some lunch and Dave and Kylie went swimming, while Dawson and I took a snoozer. When Dawson and Kylie got back from swimming, they ended up falling asleep too and we didn't get up until 4:40 and the reception was at 5 p.m. Good thing its only a couple miles away.

(The kids were having a blast dancing - before the band even started)

(My Cousin Angela (the bride) and Dawson dancing)

(My cousin Doug and Dawson dancing)

(Kylie and Cheyan - Eva's Daughter)

(Paige and Kylie dancing their hearts away)

(Dave, Kylie and Uncle Ryan dancing some more - it's a bit foggy as they had a fog machine going)!

We left the reception around 9:30ish and went home and we all took showers and headed to bed. We were just exhausted from traveling out there and having a long day!

Dawson got up at 5 a.m. -- woofta, that was early! We tried to ignore him, while he kept saying, Dada, Dada! LOL! Dave kept waiving to him and finally he laid back down and fell back to sleep until 830 a.m. :) We all got up, got ready for the day, had breakfast and visited with family for a bit longer and actually headed out around 9:45 a.m.

On our way home, as we were passing through the border, it started snowing -- YES SNOWING! Our first snowfall of the year! We also discovered that Dawson loves to eat his feet like his big sister!!

A few funny photos...

2008-10-22T21:06:00.004-05:00

Tonight, Dawson found a new place to play/hide! Check it out :)

Finally, the video of Dawson's crawling up the steps!

2008-10-22T20:49:00.002-05:00

Kylie, Kylie, Kylie...

2008-10-22T10:19:00.002-05:00

came home from daycare yesterday and said "Mom, guess what I did today?" Of course, I'm like "what, what? What did you do?" She says, "Declan and I kissed!!" I said, "WHAT? Where did you kiss each other at? On the lips?" She says, "no on the cheeks!!"

So this morning Dave asks Kylie, "Kylie, what are you not going to do today? And she says, "kiss Declan!" Dave tells her that kissing isn't for little kids and only for grown ups (sometimes!)...LOL! :)

So that's our new news with her...she's a little ham!

Lydia's Baptism 10-19-08

2008-10-22T09:46:00.012-05:00

On Sunday, October 19, 2008, we were honored to share Lydia's special day with her. :) We were also very honored to be her godparents!! Lydia did great throughout the entire church service (she slept, hehe!). She was soo pretty too -- her dress was made out of Jamie's wedding dress!

After the service, we went back to Jamie and Brian's house and had lunch and visited with lots of friends and family to Lydia. Kylie of course, met a new friend (as she does everywhere she goes) and I tell you there two girls were two peas in a pod! They were soo darn cute!

Showing off their tattoos!

Just flat out being goofy -- they were prancing around like no tomorrow!!

Dawson also spent some time outside...he was crawling up and down the steps! :) I was then throwing him up in the air and he thought that was soo hilarious....

.....until who know what happened...he was not happy at all! He just let it all out...you will probably never see this little guy cry this hard...lol.

We also got some super cute photos of all of us girls :) Lydia is still soo little -- she barely weighs 8 lbs. -- it's like holding a little doll.

A couple accomplishments of Dawson over the weekend!

2008-10-15T10:51:00.003-05:00

This weekend, we tried the fork thing -- he doesn't fork the food real well, but if we fork the food, he'll for sure put the fork in his mouth!! :)

Dawson also learned to climb the steps!!!! WOOHOO!! I was upstairs and Dave was downstairs...all of a sudden I heard pounding on the entry way floor, I look down and little Dawson had climbed up the bottom steps to the entry way. He looks at me and laughs! I said, what are you doing? and he just laughs! So of course, he "attempted" to go back down, but that doesn't work to well yet, so Dave had to run after him before he fell. I will actually post a video of him climbing the steps a little later (I just haven't uploaded it yet)! :)

The rest of our weekend!!

2008-10-15T10:09:00.012-05:00

On Saturday, the kids went to Grandma and Grandpa's in the afternoon/evening and Dave and I went to a couple showers for a friend of mine. It was fun -- we didn't know nearly anyone, but it was still fun! :)

The on Sunday, Dave got a couple Vikings tickets free, so him and Mike (Jodi's husband), went to the Vikings game, while Jodi and I took the kids to the Mall (yah, they didn't have much fun)! A funny story, while at the Mall...Kylie had to go to the bathroom and so I figured I'd change Dawson at the same time. When I was done changing Dawson's diaper, Kylie was standing quite close to the garbage and I threw the diaper into the garbage -- Kylie, very naturally, put her hand on her chest and jumped back and says, "Mom, you scared the s--t out of me!!" I laughed soo hard, but then tried to tell her she shouldn't say that word. So I definitely have to work on my language, I figured she probably caught that from me! It's a well known word out of my mouth.

On our way to the Mall -- they already look tired! :)

Then after the Mall, the kids were getting antsy...but we took them to Chuck E Cheese's! They had a blast -- we had lunch and played games. Miss Katelyn LOVED running around and checking everything out! Here are a few photos of the kids having TONS of fun! :)

Dawson and Katelyn have their "pre" lunch - O's!!!

Katelyn!

Dawson!

IT'S RIDE TIME!!!!

Kylie riding the horse (take a look at her hair -- she was totally into it) :)

Katelyn and Dawson with Barney - of course, girls in control with driving! :)

Dawson with Chuck E Cheese!!

And last but not least of our day with the kiddos -- they were all very very tired and crashed quite quickly :)

We got back to Jodi's house and we all relaxed on the couch until the boys came home and then decided to get something to eat, so we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner!

Kylie and Katelyn were buds!! Miss Kylie LOVED spending time with Katelyn!

Katelyn wasn't too fond of the hat :)

Rascal Flatts Concert!!

2008-10-15T08:59:00.009-05:00

I went to the Rascal Flatts concert last Friday with my friend Alicia and we had a blast!! We drove to St. Paul and hung out at Alary's for a little over an hour prior to the show. It was nice, they had a shuttle that took us and picked us up -- PLUS, we got free parking, thanks to Alicia's connections!

Taylor Swift started out the concert and was definitely good -- she's one heck of a country rocker ;) I can say one thing, her dress she was wearing, I definitely did not find to appealing, I've seen her look much much better!

BUT, Rascal Flatts put on a phenominal show!!! It was probably one of the better shows I've ever been too! It was awesome! It was SOOO much fun!!!

Here is a video of them coming onto stage -- yes, when you see the camera shake -- it really did shake -- the fireworks scared me a little bit.

Also, here are some photos that I also took during the show! :)

This was the encore! Then they came back out and dropped tons of balloons and confetti! It was really awesome!

Our Photos are Online -- Check them out!!

2008-10-08T10:20:00.003-05:00

Here is the link -- click on "Dawson and Kylie" and the password is: kids01

http://jhinnenkamp.photobiz.com/cart/events.cfm?categoryID=5873

I am SUPER excited to get them developed and put up in my house! I think they turned out really good! :)

Oh yes, and for those of you that know Jamie -- they had professional photos taken of Lydia on Monday and they turned out super cute -- I love little Lydia...here's the link:

http://grumanphotography.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/jamie-brian-and-lydia/

We're getting closer...

2008-10-05T18:12:00.005-05:00

Dawson is getting closer to walking -- he did take two steps by himself on Friday night, but I don't think he really knew what he did :) But, here's a video of him pushing his truck back and forth in the living room! I love the laugh at the beginning, you'll need sound!

Kylie's new thing...

2008-09-30T11:20:00.003-05:00

Kylie's new thing is asking lots of questions on how to spell certain things (i.e. cat, dog, teeth) and draw certain things. She knows how to spell Jen and Dave and Dawson and Mom and Dad. She'll spend a lot of time with her fuzzy notebook from Uncle Ryan writing and drawing in it.

Our Motorcycle Journey to Duluth

2008-09-29T21:18:00.009-05:00

This post is a little late, but I finally got the pictures uploaded!

Dave surprised me by arranging a place for the kids and taking a motorcycle ride to Duluth from Sept. 5-7. Of course, the one time we get rain was this weekend, but it was still a lot of fun! Our first night there, it was quite the journey to get there. We hit rain in Hinckley and it didn't stop the entire way up. Our luck too, we were driving in the dark...not fun on the motorcycle. So it was slow going and WET from Hinckley to Duluth. When we finally got to Duluth, I ws able to get a photo :) Poor Dave got slammed with the rain and I just tried to hide behind him...hehe!

We got to the hotel around 9ish and literally took showers in hit the hay. We were exhausted!

On Sat. it still rained, we took a trip up to the Harley Davidson dealer on top of the hill, which was kindof scary, because some of their roads are made of stone and brick and that gets really slippery when its wet. On our way out of town, we stopped at Angie's and had some appetizers.

We had intentions of going up to Gooseberry Falls, but the weather was unpredictable, so we went as far as Two Harbors and went to the Lighthouse.

When we got back into Duluth, the rain had passed for awhile and the sun came out, so we stopped at the Rose Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful!! I could not believe some of the scents of the rose's...I have never smelt anything like them before! They were gorgeous!!

This is Dave being a "stud" at the Rose Gardens!

Umm...and yes me!

Usborne Book Show

2008-09-23T14:14:00.002-05:00

To all of you interested in books, I'm hosting an Usborne Book Show on October 8, 2008. I went to a show last week and totally fell in love with these books -- they are phenomenal! I cannot wait to have my show to stock up on more books for the kids and possibly Dave, hehe!

Here's the link to an online show:

www.ubah.com/HOS124774

You may order online and I will receive credits towards my show. Otherwise, you are more than welcome to come to my house, 5582 Aberdeen Way, Big Lake, MN 55309. Please RSVP to me, so I know you're coming :)

Hope to see you there!!

Wow, time is flying...

2008-09-23T14:06:00.004-05:00

I haven't posted since little Lydia's been born!! On that note, I haven't even been able to see her since she's been born either :( I was planning on going this weekend, then I came down with this darn head cold. So hopefully it'll all be gone by this weekend, so I can take a trip to see her. I haven't been able to see Owen either other than the one visit that Kylie and I went to meet him for the first time. I've been trying to make arrangements with Angie too and it just hasn't worked out :(

Things have been crazy and we've all been under the weather. Dave was sick with an extreme sore throat for a week and 1/2 and then last week, Dawson came down with a cold and then it was my turn this weekend -- which literally kept me in my PJ's and in bed or on the couch for 2 days straight and finally today, I feel a "tiny bit" better...but still definitely under the weather. Kylie's the only one that hasn't been really hit yet...she did complain that her ear was hurting a little and that her nose was running, so lets just hope it sticks to that and doesn't turn into anything more!

We've been busy the last few weeks with Kylie starting dance on Tuesday nights again. This is a session that goes until the middle of May -- it gets long, but it's fun to see her excel and do better each time! We decided not to bowl this year as everytime it came around (every other week), it felt like we were dragging ourselves there and its so hard to find a babysitter available every other week. So we decided to wait a few years until the kids are older and see where we sit with our schedules then. We were just trying to do too much and it gets quite overwhelming. So hopefully this will free up sometime this Winter. :)

Dawson...still not walking, but pulling himself up onto everything -- literally!! He'll stand there with no support for a second or two and then fall...and laughs and claps! This child is full of humor...we love it! Dawson's new thing is to feed himself one bite, and then feed Kirby one bite. Yah, you know where Kirby stands and sits every single time Dawson eats. We've had to try and put Kirby elsewhere, otherwise, it gets to be a game and Dawson doesn't eat his food -- little stinker, LOL! But every feeding, Kirby seriously HOVERS the highchair and will sit there and drool...and slobber waiting for something to fall or for it to be "his turn"! It's soo nasty! My floor will not stay clean for 15 mins.; with two kids and a dog, I cannot keep up. O-well, I guess there could be worse things right?

She's here -- LYDIA!!! :)

2008-09-12T19:38:00.000-05:00

Lydia arrived to our world today at 2:31 p.m. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 13 oz. and was 19" long -- she's just a little peanut! I've posted a slide show of some photos I took while up at the hospital :) Check out Jamie's blog for more information (you'll find it on my blog under "friends blogs")!

Exciting...

2008-09-11T10:30:00.001-05:00

I got an email from my daycare provider yesterday saying that Dawson pulled himself up on the side of the pack n play -- I was soo excited to hear this and she was soo very kind to send a photo as well:

I noticed yesterday morning he was "trying" to stand up in his crib -- he would get one leg up, but couldn't seem to get his other leg out from underneath him to push to stand up. This makes me soo excited that he's doing this now...it's only one step closer to walking -- YAY!!!

As promised...

2008-09-11T10:22:00.001-05:00

a couple pictures of my friend Angie's baby -- he's now 2 weeks old:

Pictures!! :)

2008-09-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

We had professional pictures taken last night and I absolutely LOVE the way they turned out -- our photographer posted a "sneak peak" on her blog. We also took photos with my parents and brother, which are not posted -- but I'm positive they turned out really well! I cannot wait to see them all -- I'm super excited to get them :)

http://www.jmphotographymn.blogspot.com/

State Fair 2008

2008-09-04T15:32:00.001-05:00

We had a very good long weekend! We brought the kids to the State Fair on Friday with my parents! It was an extremely long day, but it was fun! We started off with bringing the kids into the Little Farm Hands! It was so cute and Kylie obviously understands it much more than Dawson did, but it was good! Everything is "play" and nothing is real, but the kids definitely get the idea. :) If you have a min. take a look at the photos from the Farm.

Then we ventured our way to the Kiddy Midway for Kylie and a few of the rides were a little young for her, but she is one dare devil and really likes the fast rides!

AND yes, I went on a ride with her as well...it was actually quite fun -- they were airplanes...

AND Dave too, got to go on a ride with Kylie...definitely one I could not do, I'm not one to go in circles, but Dave doesn't seem to mind, check out the video (you'll need sound) :)

AND this brings us to the Giant Green and Yellow slide -- Kylie and I went first and then Miss Kylie wanted to go AGAIN, so of course, we went AGAIN and I brought Dawson this time. He was a tad bit scared...he didn't really have a whole lot to cry, but started to get a little scared (as I could tell in his wimpers) and then before you knew it we were at the bottom and he turns around and looks at it...like what in the world was that:

The kids were starting to get tired by this point -- Kylie was ready to go home. We didn't bring the wagon, as I thought for sure she would have been able to make it through the entire day -- this girl usually has so much energy...so we brought the stroller for Dawson, but realized by this time, we should have brought the wagon for Kylie AND Dawson!

So while Dawson was taking a snoozer, my Mom wanted to go on the "sling shot" and I kept hinting at my Dad that she really wanted to go...well he finally said, if you BOTH go on this ride, I'll pay for it...well THIS ride, is called "2Xtreme". I was scared out of my pants...seriously! My Dad bought tickets and my Mom and I risked our lives...and I was literally questionning the guy who was putting us into this ride and asking him if he's ever rode it, etc. He said he has rode it one time when he bought it, but that it will be the best ride of our lives!! Well there was no turning back at this point -- it much reminded me of skydiving...check out the photos:

We finally ended our journey of the Fair with some Sweet Martha's Chocolate Chip Cookies -- Dawson totally enjoyed :)

Kylie fell asleep on Grandpaon our way home...that girl was tired!

Kylie and her friend Kristen

2008-08-27T10:18:00.000-05:00

Kylie had a playdate last night and Kristen's Mom took some photos of the girls! They had a blast and are soo darn cute I had to share! :)

Long weekend - Short week - Long weekend!

2008-08-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

Last Friday -- I came home from work not feeling well and then came to find out when I got home that Dawson was not good either. He ran a temp. mainly in the evenings of 104-105 degrees and during the day of around 101. He was totally out of it a lot of the weekend! But we made it through and he's doing much better!

We had made a trip to Target on Sunday and I was trying sunglasses on -- I had asked Kylie what she thought and she came back with the comment "Stylish, Mom!" My Mom and I laughed so hard! She didn't even think twice about it -- it just came out! It was adorable! This Summer, Kylie has grown up so much! I'm so amazed. Everyday, she's talking more and more like an adult and it's so scary!

I took the day off yesterday to have a day to myself and I still wasn't feeling up to par! But it was nice to have a day to literally relax and sleep with no interruptions. I did feel extremely guilty sending my children to daycare while I slept and sat at home. This never happens!!

So this upcoming week -- it's a short week for us and then another long weekend -- yay!! Dave and I and my parents took Friday off to take the kids to the State Fair! Kylie got to go last year, while I was home with Dawson and actually if I remember correctly I was also in the hospital last year when they went to the State Fair...that's when I had my D & C done. Crazy how fast time goes! But I'm excited to take them and spend the day with them. :)

I also have some other news!! My friend Angie had her baby yesterday! She had a baby boy, Owen Daniel, born on August 25 at 8:35 p.m. He weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20" long and has very blonde hair as I've been told. I'm patiently waiting to speak with her -- I heard the news from her Mom -- but I will post photos as soon as I can get some!

~Dawson's 1 year check-up~

2008-08-19T09:49:00.000-05:00

Dawson had his 1 year check-up last night and for the most part everything looks good! Things were a little odd though...lol! The first thing they do when we get to the clinic is take his weight and height. He weighed in at 20# 14 oz. and oddly that's only a 10 oz. gain from his 9 month check-up, this put Dawson in the 10% tile. I was like WHAT? Kylie was never ever in the 10% tile for anything! It was quite strange! His height was 30 1/2", so that's a 1 1/2" growth spurt in that area and that puts him in the 90% tile for height! Then they also took his head measurement and that was at 18", another oddly thing, his 9 month appt. his head measured at 18 1/4". So we discovered with the head circumference that the helmet made that difference and obviously reshaped his head.

They were not concerned at all by his little weight gain, because it's obvious he eats and that he's growing, as he was in inches as well. Our little Dawson is just tall and lean at this point!

Otherwise, Dawson is doing great and still progressing on all levels. He ended up getting 3 shots last night and I felt so terrible for him. He never cries, so it broke my heart to hear him cry and whimper. :( He did really well and hung in there the best he could!

He goes back at 15 months...so lets all hope he's walking by then :) He's definitely getting around VERY well by crawling these days!

Dawson's First Birthday!!!!!

2008-08-16T23:06:00.001-05:00

It's my birthday and I'll say CHEESE if I want too!

Well today was the big day! I cannot believe it came so fast and it went soo fast too! :( Today was a great day -- it couldn't have been better -- we spent the entire day outside! We had Dawson's party at a local park and it all worked out perfect. We got to spend time with all of our family and friends; including my family from out-of-state came! It was great to see them all. Dave got the pleasure of grilling all the hot dogs and brats.

Dawson had a ton of fun with his cake (BTW, he got his own little "dig in" cake as the rest of us ate the cupcake cake! He absolutely loved it and totally dug in -- we ended up taking his clothes off and not putting any back on for awhile. We had to clean this boy inside and out! He had cake everywhere, up his nose, in his ears, hair and eyes. But he loved it and had a blast eating it! I could hear people saying they've never seen a 1 year old eat as much cake as he ate! So far, so good, no tummy aches!

Dawson didn't quite understand the gist of gift opening, but he had his big sister and lots of friends helping out. There was no lack of assistance! Dawson was more interested in the cards than the gifts I think anyways, hehe!

Dawson did get a really cool Tonka truck that he literally fit right into!

Dawson got a lot of really need gifts, books (in which we needed) and BOY toys! He needed them...poor little guy was playing with Barbie pianos and other GIRL toys. :)

Dawson's godparents Jamie and Brian spent quite a bit of time with Dawson today too -- they came to the party at the park and then came to our house afterwards for the "afterparty", I guess you could call it! My Mom and Grandma also came over and it was absolutely gorgeous outside, so we sat in the front yard and played yard games and just hung out (yes, Jen had a few beers). It was a blast! Dawson did get to take a snoozer for a little bit, but Kylie, nah, that wasn't happening! After Dawson got up, we had unraveled some of his toys, so he got to play with them and crawled around and discovered that grass wasn't so bad after all!

Brian got the joy of going on the tire swing with Dawson! It got to a point where Dawson could have totally fallen asleep. :)

Dawson and Brian spending quality time!!

We ended the evening about 10:30 p.m. when Jamie and Brian went home! :( It was great to spend some time with our favorite friends though!

Last but not least for today...

2008-08-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

I'm actually posting on the day that something happened!!! :)

DAWSON STARTED CRAWLING!!!! YAY!!! We are soo very excited! It's so cute and he knows it too. He's becoming much more mobile and it's great! We've been patiently waiting for this day to come! Something I never thought I'd be saying, hehe!

On another note, he is getting 5 teeth in...two of them are his one year molars :( He's doing really well for them coming in. He's a strong boy -- they don't seem to bother him all that bad; but can definitely tell he's teething -- he always has something in his mouth (i.e. fingers or blanket).

Next weekend is Dawson's 1 year birthday. I just cannot believe how fast it has gone! I will post some photos after his little celebration of digging into his cake :)

Kylie's First Trip to Valleyfair

2008-08-09T22:49:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday, August 3, 2008, I had my company family outing at Valleyfair and I thought it would be a great experience for Kylie to go (especially because we didn't have to pay for it). :) Dawson stayed with our friends, Jamie and Brian, while we had a day with Kylie. The rain seemed to hold off for us and it wasn't super hot, it was great because the park wasn't real busy either. Below are a few pictures of Kylie having TONS of fun!

Dave and Kylie on the hot air balloons!

Kylie on the "MILD THING" (in the black shirt). She went on this roller coaster 3 times in a row! She loved it!

Kylie and Jen on the ferris wheel -- this was the last ride of the day!

Dawson's First Bike Ride

2008-08-09T22:40:00.000-05:00

Dawson took his first bike ride in the bike trailer! I don't think he really knew what to think...he was quite quiet the entire time riding. But Kylie on the other hand, enjoyed riding instead of biking herself -- as she would say, "if I biked a really long ways, my legs would get tired" and we did go for a long bike ride that day, so decided to have her give her brother some company. Dave got the big workout by pulling the bike trailer!

Kylie's started soccer

2008-08-09T22:30:00.000-05:00

Kylie started soccer a couple weeks ago and is really liking it...it keeps her moving at all times and this girl has so much energy that soccer actually makes her tired afterwards! :)

Dawson digging in!

2008-07-30T10:59:00.000-05:00

Dave was gone one night last week and I totally let Dawson dig into his dinner -- which usually does not happen if Daddy is home! Check out these photos, he had a blast and of course, it was a messy one -- spaghetti!!!

Saturday at Como Zoo

2008-07-29T16:22:00.000-05:00

This last Saturday, we had a very fun filled day at Como Zoo. Kylie goes every year and still has soo much fun and this was Dawson's first year and he also seemed to really enjoy it or at least enjoy everyone's company :) We brought my godchild with us -- it was her 11th birthday on Friday, so I thought it would be a nice treat to have her join us. Kylie's cousin Brynn also came with with her Grandma; so we had a nice little group and had tons of fun!

I've been to Como Zoo every year for the past 3-4 years and I've never seen the Butterfly Exhibit. It was really cool and the kids didn't know what to think...but the butterflies really loved Dave. They kept landing on his head or his back.

Dawson too really loved the butterflies. He didn't know what to think at first, but kept trying to grab at them! It was really cute! I swear this child is not afraid of anything! :)

Finally after looking at everything in the Zoo (it was Sparky the Seal's birthday too) including Kylie's favorite, the giraffe's:

we headed over to Como Town and rode some rides! Yes, this Mom got onto the "Dragon" rollercoaster! Kylie definitely enjoyed it more than I did -- in which I was completely surprised! She had a blast! Dave and Kennedy also rode a ride with Kylie and it flew in the air and spun by them turning the little table in the middle...no thank you! I wouldn't have made it through that ride! There must be something about having two kids and not being able to handles the rides anymore :)

While in Como Town they had a thing called "Bear Express". Very similar to Build a Bear Workshop...but the "Express" version...so the kids picked out an animal to stuff and an outfit to put on their animals/bear. Kylie and Brynn got the giraffe and Kennedy got a bunny -- both very cute! :) Kylie's giraffe and outfit (cheerleader outfit) were a odd but cute combination...hehe!

We ended the fun filled day with a little BBQ outside the park. Grandpa brought his little gas grill and we cooked up some brats and hot dogs and hung out for an hour or so before we took off for the afternoon. The kids were exhausted by the end of the day and took naps when we got home!

That evening, we had a bonfire with smores of course! It was a great evening for it, until the mosquitos decided to come out around 9:30 - 10 p.m.

Look Alikes?

2008-07-24T11:04:00.000-05:00

Daddy, sorry, but there is no denying these kids!

Let's put a mustach on Dawson!

They may have a "smidge" of Mom in them :)

Jamie's "Friends" Baby Shower

2008-07-24T10:54:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth and I had a friends shower for Jamie on July 13. She came out with some really good things that will be a great help for her with baby Lydia! :) Our friend Rachel was in town from Seattle, so we were able to arrange the shower around the time she was planning on being in town. It worked out perfect! It was nice to get all of us girls together to chit chat and visit, with our busy schedules these days, it's very hard to do! As for the shower, they "I think" enjoyed playing the "poopy diaper" game! We melted different kinds of chocolate and put them in a diaper and the guests had to guess what kind of chocolate it was...some of them (most of them) were pretty disgusting...HA! It was quite hilarious though!

Rachel, Angie (expecting at the end of Aug.) and Jamie

Jamie and the soon to be Grandma Lisa

Dawson and a freezee

2008-07-08T09:24:00.001-05:00

So Sunday night, Dawson tried a freezee and after those first few bites, he loved it and ate almost the entire thing!! Check it out :)

"Hmmm...my teethers are cold"

"This is COLD"

I LOVE THIS FACE!!!

"Now, this is good (but still a little cold)"

Long 4th of July Weekend!

2008-07-07T15:46:00.001-05:00

Wow, where do I start -- what an extremely long weekend!! My weekend started out last Wednesday (while Dave worked) -- woohoo! I got to spend a couple days with the kids (as daycare was on vacation) and I loved it! I don't usually get days with the kids by myself, but I totally enjoyed it and the weather was perfect in all ways for us to spend a lot of time outside!

Friday, the 4th of July, Dave and I and my parents and my cousin Scott went on a motorcycle ride! The week before Dave bought a Harley! It is soo much fun! We had an absolute blast and the weather was great. I actually ended up getting sun burned, thinking aww...I'll be fine and not thinking this was my first real long time in the sun. Unfortunately, I do not believe in sun screen for myself, so I guess I'll pay the consequences! Then Friday night we went over to our friends, Jamie and Brian's house for a little get together and a BBQ with a little bean bag toss and a few UNO games and on our way home, we stopped on the side of the road to watch fireworks. We couldn't figure out why all these people were stopped on the road (the fireworks hadn't started yet), so we're like what the heck, we'll pull over too and then shorter after, they started booming...they were pretty as Kylie would say!

Then on Saturday, my parents had a BBQ, so we headed down there in the afternoon and hung out with the family for a few hours! It was a good time and Kylie spent most of the time playing with her two cousins she doesn't see a whole lot and swimming :) Dawson went swimming for the first time and didn't know what to think! He would stand up in the pool, but wouldn't sit -- I think it was cold on his tummy and it scared him a bit. Then when we got home, the neighbors were having a bonfire ("firecamp" for Kylie), so Kylie and I headed over there for smores. It was definitely a very exhausting day!

Sunday, we literally laid around all day -- I "attempted" to clean the house, but unfortunately didn't get too far...Dave and Kylie cleaned her room and I got the kitchen floor cleaned and that's about it. We went for a walk later in the evening and it was still soo darn hot out, I broke a sweat at 6:30 p.m. It was just gross!

But all in all, it was a great 5 days off. I needed that time and can honestly say, I enjoyed every day!

Father's Day

2008-06-18T10:40:00.000-05:00

Dave had an great Father's Day! We got up on Sunday and laid in bed with the kids for a little bit and Kylie was soo excited to give Daddy his presents! She couldn't hold it back anymore, so she finally gave him his gifts and he loved them. We bought him a cover for his guitar for guitar hero and a bluetooth for his PS3 and cell phone. We also bought him a shop light for the garage. He's been wanting one for a long time and it's one of those things that you just don't buy!

We had breakfast reservations at the bowling alley restaurant! We just got a new bowling alley with a restaurant attached an a bar attached along with an arcade with mini golf! We went to breakfast at 10 a.m. and it was packed! It was great food and afterwards, we went to the arcade and played mini golf in the blacklight. As we driving home, Dave decided that he wanted to see a movie...so I dropped him and Kylie off at the theater and they saw Kung Fu Panda! :) He said Kylie was tired throughout the movie, but watched parts of it. Dawson and I went shopping and picked Dave and Kylie up after the movie was over. The kids went home and had a nap and Dave and I did some putzy stuff around the house (put door handles on) and then after the kids go up, we went to my parents house for dinner. It was a gorgeous night out, so we spent a lot of time outside in the yard. Kylie got a new bike when she got there -- Grandma and Grandpa bought her a bike to keep at their house! She was SOOO excited and thought it was the coolest thing. I brought my rollerblades with me knowing she was getting this bike -- so she went out a few times up and down the road -- it is a bit bigger (18") so she'll be able to keep it for awhile, but seems to ride it great!

Some other fun and exciting things!!

2008-06-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago, Dave's Dad came up and we took his two girls, which are 7 and 8 (yes, Dave's sisters). :) It's soo amazing how Kylie resembles Christina so much! They are so much alike and actually look alike as well. We had a really fun time -- it was a lot of work, but it was fun. On Saturday, we took the kids to a park in St. Cloud (about 30 mins. from our house) and little did we know, it had a little water park with huge sprinklers there. Well that didn't last long and they were wet -- especially Christina, she loved it!! Kylie and Casey Jo held back a bit. They had an absolute blast though and it was great for them to let loose and burn some energy out there. When we got back, they begged to set up the sprinkler in the back yard, so we did that and they also made me some very special "dirt, grass and rock soup"! No, I did not try it...but they had a blast making it! :)

We've been trying to do some minor things to the house to "spiff" it up a little bit...we bought solid oak 6 panel doors for upstairs! We got them really reasonable and they were already stained and matched our oak perfectly! So we've been putting those up and buying new door handles. It's looks great!! It totally changes the look of the house and I love it!

Another project that we had this summer was to add a couple things to Kylie's swingset...we ended up putting a sandbox in as well as a rock climbing wall, which was for her birthday! She definitely did not let us forget about it...as we were waiting for the accessories for it, she would constantly remind us that we still need to do the rock climbing wall...it was cute! We finally did finish it!

Some other exciting news!! Our daycare lady, Sheila, had her baby! It was a BOY -- Beau David! He is absolutely adorable! He weighed in at 10 lbs. 2 oz. Both Sheila and Beau are doing really well!

Awesome Dawson!

2008-06-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

Dawson, of course, is just Dawson! Still, not crawling but getting around by rolling or scooting on his butt. We'll put him in the middle of the room and the next thing you know, he's 10 feet from where we put him and of course, when we look at him, he just laughs! He is such a happy baby! He's transitioning really well from baby food to people food and LOVES it! He LOVES to eat. It seems like we're always feeding this little guy!

He is officially done with the helmet. He wore it for about 8 weeks and it definitely made a difference. I cannot believe how those little things can change the shape of a head soo quickly! It was definitely worth the $$$ we put into it.

Dawson had his 9 month check-up on 5/29/08, he weighed in at 20.4 lbs. (50%) and he was 29" long (75%). He's right on track with things, which was good to hear! He is such a laid back baby that he has no ambition to do things. But I guess it's ok :)

One of his most favorite things to do is show everyone "how big he is"! The first picture, I just had to take -- we were laughing soo hard at him and he kept doing it over and over and over!! :)

Miss Kylie!

2008-06-18T09:09:00.001-05:00

Kylie finished dance in May (after a long season) and then started up with t-ball. She really enjoys it and seems to be doing really well with it already. It's so adorable to see all these 4 and 5 year olds out there, running after a ball...and "trying" to catch them. I can say (not only because she's my child, hehe), that she is probably one of the more competitive girls out there. We kindof figured she'd be this way with sports, because she is quite competative in other things as well. :) It's a lot of fun to watch and more up my alley! We'll do one more year of dance and see where she sits after that to see if we'll continue with it!

This is all new to me!

2008-02-25T11:06:00.000-06:00

So I attempted to start a blog -- it shall be quite interesting! I've started stuff like this before and never seem to keep up, but I think this will be good to do, so everyone can keep up with the kiddos. So here we go, off to blogging!! :)