I think I'm back...

There is no way it has been 2 years since I last posted.  I mean, whaaaaaat?

So.  Before I tell all that has gone on in our lives the past 2 years, besides having 3 kids in a 5 year span (yes, other's have had it worse....but you don't know me!), I am going to show you a pic from just a couple days ago...Friday at the MN State Fair.  MN State Fair is the largest attended state fair in the nation.  And it is totally worth it! :)  I get an annual cup of Dole Whip...best stuff ever.

Just a note that the youngest, was happy at the fair...just not when I tried to take his photo with us! :)  The girl is now 7, the blonde is 5 and the "baby" is 2!

Posting will hopefully be more regular...I hope!

Christmas!

We made it down to TX this Christmas again...it was so fun.  

Except for the drive down and back!  

Lets just say, it can be tough driving 20+ hours in a vehicle with three children.  

Let alone a 5-going-on-15 year old daughter, a son going through the terrible 3's (YES, THREE'S), and a sweet-but-sick-of-his-car-seat infant.

But--

We made it.  And all in one piece!

While in TX we had photos taken by a friend of my Mom & Dad's.  Things turned out pretty good.  

I can't even begin to tell you how long it has been since we actually had a family photo...5-7 years ago?  I think?

Well, here they are.  All images copyright Fuller Fotography.

Started off with the original 4...

Then, Cameron and me.

Here's a cute shot of our little family of 5.

And of course, grandparents and the grandchildren.

And like I said earlier...I have a 5 year old that is-

-looking to be 15.

Yeah, she loves to pose.  So her uncle lucked out.

And finally all of us.

Hope you had a great Christmas!  We did!

Giving Thanks

Most don't know this, but my brother moved to Minnesota at the end of June this past year.

He didn't just move to MN...he moved to our same city, where his company (which is what brought him here), is located.  After 10 years, I can only say God completely and utterly made that one happen!

We've been enjoying lots of dinners together as he has gotten settled into a rental property, finding a church, and just adjusting to living in the upper Midwest again.

Thanksgiving was a first holiday we have gotten to celebrate together here.  And that bird, friends, is a 23 pounder.  Turned out DELICIOUS!

Emalyn made the place cards and chose where people would sit.  

And this little one got to try some mashed potatoes...which he loved by the way.

One of my favorite things, besides having more family close by, is the chance we had to give Thanksgiving dinner to our neighbor.

About three years ago, right around this time of year, our elderly neighbor lost his wife to an infection after a routine hip replacement surgery.  Needless to say it was quite unexpected for him an their two sons.  

They were married 60+ years, and I just discovered a few months ago, he has really only been eating canned foods for meals since she passed, when he doesn't go out to a restaurant.

If you know me and how much I love food...that's just wrong.

I've been trying to get him meals once a week or so...but I gotta tell you it hasn't been easy on top of adjusting to the third baby in our own lives!

So, we made him, and his two sons, a full on Thanksgiving Dinner.

And all I can say about that is how incredibly good it feels to give something like that to someone who truly cannot do it for themselves.

So wonderful.  And his heart is so thankful.  Which makes giving to him even more beautiful.

Now that I have tears in my eyes...I have to end this post on a lighthearted note.

The photo below shows off the other perk of having my brother close by.  The kids enjoy his humor.

I'm thankful they're building a relationship with him.

God is so good.  I'm so thankful to Him, for His salvation, and how He chooses to bless me.

Growin' Up Fast

Just a quick post of photos to show how this little one has grown!  So hard to believe he's 6 months!  (And yes I've said that with every kid....)

Just a few days old.

First Bath at about a week and a half old.

One Month Old

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

(Crystal Hedberg Photography, below)

Five Months

Six Months

Have a great Thanksgiving, all!!

Summer Camp!

Every Summer we head up about an hour and a half north to a church family camp that we all have just grown to love.

This year the older kids were really able to enjoy the fishing...however there wasn't too much to be caught. 

Everyone always says it's the experience...um, okay.

I think I'm the person that will gladly sit on the boat reading and sunning, and my husband can be working to catch all the fish.  ha!

Blech.  She loved those little bait worms.  They looked like maggots to me.  I think If I was a kid I would have loved them too...

And yes, the sky was really that blue.  

Every year the kid's group goes to a large petting zoo called the Farmyard.  

It is the highlight of their trip.

There seems to always be a new animal or house to go into and discover each year--they really do a good job changing it up year to year.  

This year we remembered to buy the seed sticks to feed the parakeets.

The parakeets fly free in a 25x25 sq ft bird house.  It's super cool...until you get pooped on. (Thankfully we all remained poop-free.)

Or...when the bird actually lands on your head.

Liam was NOT happy.

But he got over it and gave me this sweet photo with his sister.

We got one of our first "family of 5" photos taken there...it has become a tradition to capture at least one family photo while spending our time at camp.

Already looking forward to next year...but that may be because it's 20 degrees while I'm writing this!

Stage Presence

After Xander was born we had Emalyn's dance recital to attend about a week later.  She enjoyed it...however her class was so large, I think it took away from her having as much fun as she could have had it been smaller numbers.

Here she is after the show on stage...she loves being on stage, that girl.  (June 2)

Another Little Boy

I know, I know, I'm so behind on posting...but here is the story of our wonderful addition to our family...Alexander Paul!  We are planning to call him Xander.

 Here I am arriving to the hospital for the induction Wednesday morning.

I have low platelets during my pregnancies...this pregnancy was my best yet (I think) and I worked hard to keep those numbers up!  But just in case, we thought I should be induced at 39 weeks to make sure I didn't run into any problems.

We arrived at 730ish in the morning.

My Certified Nurse Midwife stripped my membranes and broke my water which caused labor to come on and looked promising...but slowed so much by 1:00 PM that I had to be given Pitocin.

Shockingly, Pitocin wasn't the nightmare drug I had thought it would be.  My contractions increased gradually and slightly.  it definitely got me where I needed to be to have this little guy!

Finally by 6:00ish I decided since this labor was moving much slower than my previous one, I would ask for an epidural.

Got my epidural, and turns out only my left side got medicated!  It wasn't horrible, but if I'm going to be medicated, it should probably work correctly...right?  So, we got the anesthesiologist back and he shot me up with another round, and no joke...I could feel NOTHING from the waist down within minutes!  It was ridiculous (in a good way)!

I was definitely changing and my body was complete at about 10:00pm.  I actually somehow felt "pushy" and with one good push...and a bunch of laughing...my Xander was born.

I literally laughed him into this world!

The best part about this delivery, aside from my new little baby boy, is the interesting fact that I came into the hospital and saw the nurse that had actually delivered Emalyn 5 years ago.  She was my nurse from 7AM-3PM.

THEN, the nurse that delivered Liam almost 3 years ago came in on the following shift and delivered Xander!!

I just think that's crazy...!!  It was awesome to have them be my nurses again.

Here's our first family photo of the 5 of us!

 And of course, the very proud big sister whose birthday is the very next day--May 23!!

Texas

Since last posting, we were able to visit Texas...twice!  

Cameron and I had already planned on flying down for a visit in February as we were able to use our points/rewards, and scored a cost free flight!  We just got a vehicle rental, of course, when we got there.

But before I get ahead of myself, in December, over Christmas week, Cameron decided that we should break in our new mini van (which is a completely different post!) and visit Mimi and Papa.

So...off we went!  

We thought it would be fun to surprise my parents, however, we ended up only surprising my mom really because turns out, we had to include my dad in the plans.  My mom offered a place to stay for someone in their church, so I felt it necessary to let him in on it, just in case she really did end up with a full house!  

If need be, he could have tried to direct her with the knowledge he had of four other individuals coming to stay...unbeknownst to her!

So, still wanting to get some kind of surprise in for my Dad, Cameron and I decided to try driving straight through.  Proud to say, "We did it!" 

And we arrived to their house the Saturday before Christmas, just before 10 am.  My dad was expecting us more around 4-5pm. 

So, we knocked at the back bedroom, thinking they would hear us...but no answer.

Then we knocked at the back entrance thinking they would hear us there...but no answer.

So I decided to phone them, because in very atypical fashion, all the shutters were still drawn, and no windows open, no movement...nothing!  And these aren't the type of people that sleep in!  

I didn't know what to think, and with my kids waiting to " 'prise, Mimi," if something was not right, I would have felt terrible!

But of course, they were both just upstairs, where they could hardly hear anything we were doing.  And we did indeed, " 'prise, Mimi!"

 We had so much fun as the weather allowed us to play in the nearby park many times that week.  

We still had to wear our jackets some days, but it was very comfortable....we loved it!

Here is Liam with his much loved gift of a Bible.  

 And of course Emalyn, here with her much beloved American Girl Doll (Craig's listed by Cam/I and Mimi/Papa).  

 This Christmas was very different for the kids as Cameron and I are making an effort to step away from the commercialism that it has become.

The kids received three gifts from Cameron and me: something they can Read, something they Want, and something they Need.

Their gifts were and are much loved...it was interesting to see how much more they enjoyed and used each gift with so much less around them.  They both received personalized Bibles, Emmy the AG doll and Liam an electronic keyboard, and lastly, both received clock radios with iPod docs for their rooms.

It was a great week.

Then, our February trip arrived 4 short weeks later, and we visited Waco's Cameron Park Zoo, Austin's Zilker Park, and the adjoining Botanical gardens.  We even had fun at Ikea, and other little shopping expeditions...not to mention flashlight walks after dark and many trips to the neighborhood park.

The kids truly love the change in temps when we visit in the winter.  We get such cabin fever here in MN...especially now that we are back!

Cute photo with the grandparents...and the next photo with mommy (the baby and I are 24 weeks here) and daddy. Both these were taken at the botanical gardens.

It was so hard to leave, but we had to...here the kids were watching the planes at the airport.

See you again soon Mimi and Papa...next time in MN!

Merry Christmas 2012

Couldn't pick one card that I liked this year, so there were two!

More the Merrier.

Still have to scan them in, but here is one photo from each card for your viewing enjoyment!! :)

Oh, and if you received a card, then you know....we're expecting number three on my daughter's birthday in May.  (Yay!!)

The Lord's timing, you know? But that's a whole different post!

Long time...

Hi All!

My internet connection (through my phone, mind you) is just terrible.  Hence, I left posting altogether!!

However, I will be working on that in the near future...my biggest drawback to our shotty connection is the super slow photo downloads.

And lets face it, photos are the best part of blogging--in my opinion!

So needless to say, I will figure out ways to post, with photos.  Soon....maybe next month.  :)

What we've been doing this fall...

Home renovation.

Since we weren't able to sell, due to this horrible market, we decided to make this place more kid friendly.

Easier said than done.

We've opened the wall from the kitchen to the living room and added a breakfast bar/pass through, along with widening the entrance from the dining room to the kitchen itself.  And of course, we changed the footprint of the kitchen cabinets-its more of a galley kitchen now.

The results are still in progress as we are awaiting the final stages--flooring/new base boards and cabinet kick plates.

And so far?  We really love it.

The kids and I have been in the kitchen, with Cameron, and we've all had plenty of room to move around and not run into each other every second.

I can also just look out through the breakfast bar opening and see what the little crazies are up to.  Saved some accidents already, let me tell you!

I want to wait to put up most of the photos because it really will only look even better when there is an actual, finished, after photo.  So, what I will leave you with are the before photos...a refresher if you will, of what this place looked like and your minds can take the above information and see if it matches what the "after images" will behold.  Soon...promise!

End of Summer Photo Shoot