Fall Fun!

Our annual trip to a pumpkin patch.  We tried a new one this year with some friends.  The pot-bellied pig eating pumpkins was a favorite, although I don't have any pictures of it.  Hard to believe we were wearing shorts at the pumpkin patch this year.  I still made my chili dinner anyhow, even though it was 80 degrees.

Our family on the hayride.  Hard to keep Eleanor still that long.

One Size Fits All...

 

 

except for our friends' baby who can no longer squeeze into it.:) After they returned it, my girls thought it was the greatest toy around.

Halloween

Digging through the crawl space for costumes this year seemed to be fairly successful. Adde is obsessed with Fancy Nancy right now, and we found a clever way to use a dog costume we already had to become Frenchy - Fancy's dog. For some reason the bee just seemed to fit Eleanor's personality.

We walked around the neighborhood for about an hour with the neighbors, and came home with over 100 pieces of candy and $4. Not too shabby. Adde's candy stash seemed to dwindle rather quickly, and not by her either. I let Eleanor have one piece - a Milky Way. I thought she was going to burn a hole in her shirt when she signed please to get more. I have not seen her little hand move that fast or that hard before.

Birthdays Everywhere!

August and September were birthday months for us!  We celebrated Eleanor's August 24th in Minnesota, a joint celebration for both girls over Labor Day Weekend in Indiana, and Addelynn's September 26th in Minnesota.  We are so blessed to celebrate and remember the births of these two little girls.



And a few movies for fun...









Does anyone have the video of the cake presentation in Indiana? I can't seem to find it and I know it's really funny to see Adde's response to her Dora cake.

State Fair 2011

As I write about the State Fair from August, I really miss the shorts and short sleeved shirts. I am so behind in life, but I've got to start catching up this blog somehow.

This was Adde's third year at the Fair, and Eleanor's first. The girls had a great time. We tried different foods this year - no Sweet Martha's cookies. On my list was a pretzel dog, deep fried pickles with cream cheese inside, and a sweet dream peach. I succeeded in sabatozing the plans to visit each of these stands. I think the peach was my favorite. Aside from food, we saw lots of animals, watched the parade, sat on lots of different farm and yard machinery, went into the campers (one of Adde's favorite things to do), and did some crafts and coloring. Mark was a spotter this year for work, so we looked for other people wearing the bright orange shirts and handing out gift cards. On a side note, this was the first year we took Adde to the cow milking station and she had no questions about this process...hmmm.

Look Who's Driving!

 

We're back...

but I don't know for how long.  Have to be honest, time to blog seems to not exist anymore.  I did find this album I meant to share earlier, but the computer was having problems.  So here's to our own Etsy shop (for those of you who haven't been introduced to the world of Etsy, it's fabulous.  Handmade items to buy or sell.  Even better than Etsy is Heartsy - selected deals for the day on Etsy).  Anyway...

Our next little diva...

who is one today! Happy Birthday sweet baby Eleanor Jane! More to come later on the birthday thoughts...

My First Half Marathon

and I will entice you to read something about me by inserting pictures of my adorable fan club!

I ran my first half marathon this past Sunday. This has been on my bucket list for years. There is always an excuse. This year I got connected with some people from my church who were running with Team World Vision to raise money and awareness for kids in Africa who don't have clean water. I decided to join the cause. Then the famine hit East Africa, and it seemed like there were reminders every day in the paper about the realities across the globe. I cried one morning reading about the babies in Kenya and seeing a picture of a baby boy - so starkly different from my healthy baby girl. God once again softened my heart to the reality of the rest of the world.

I signed up to run this race because it was something I've always wanted to do, but I know now that God wanted to make me more aware and give me an aching heart for His kids. It truly was exhilirating to run. I felt great (until that night...oh boy). Hopefully I can do this again. I finished in 2:02:44. Now my goal is to finish under 2 hours if there is a next time.

(Eleanor just can't seem to focus on the camera for anything:))

Guesses?

Notice the mark on her cheek? Any guesses as to what caused this?

New Wheels

The girls have found new wheels this month...

Eleanor's Dedication

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ." Philippians 1:9-10

Our Game

Eleanor has a few games she enjoys to play. This is one of them. The other is handing objects to you expecting that you will say thank you and return them right away. This game does not work so well with other small children.

10 & 11 Months

Taking Eleanor's growth pictures each month has been an adventure.  She does not sit still at all and seems to not smile for the camera at all.  I also learned that involving Adde in the process involves a whole new dimension.  I learned and did the 11 month pictures while Adde was napping.  I'll just let the pictures tell the story.  They are in chronological order.

Spunky

Our sweet, laid back baby Eleanor is turning into little miss opinionated.  When she gained mobility, she also found her voice.  She's into all of Adde's stuff and complains when she can't have what she wants and screams when things don't go her way.  Take for example our lunch...(First though I need to preface the story with the fact that Eleanor was sedated for an MRI this morning.  This is about two hours after waking up, and we are told to ease her back into eating in case she is nauseous.  Start with the bland...)

She is happily eating puffs and has had about three helpings.  This is her first food of the day because of the MRI.  I figure she needs to eat something else (as I question if puffs are too much to begin with), so I get her a cracker.  She picks the cracker up, takes one bite, scowls, chucks it on the floor for the dog to eat, and starts screaming.  I cave and give her more puff.  When the puffs hit her tray, she starts clapping and smiling.  Well, it worked this time Eleanor to get your way.  At least I knew that you were feeling better and back to your opinionated self.

We love you spunky girl!

Be Happy

We have been working really hard on our attitudes in our house, especially two year old ones.  It seems like it is an hourly thing to get rid of the grouchies, find self control, use nice words and a nice voice, etc.  One morning Adde is complaining while brushing her teeth and she just so happens to be wearing a pink shirt that says "Be Happy".  I tell her that maybe she should listen to her shirt and be happy.  Without missing a beat, Adde says, "Mom, where's my pink one that says naughty?"

Another funny happened today when I asked her if she wanted to sit on my lap while watching Dora.  The grandmas just left today and I hadn't spent as much time with her last week as normal. Thought it would be good bonding.  I'm wearing capris (important detail).  When Adde climbs on, she says, "Mom your knees are ouchy," and jumps off.  "You need to wear longer paints so I don't feel your itchy things," (as she is pointing to my leg hair :)).  Guess I need to shave more often. 

Ok, one more.  We're at dinner tonight eating spaghetti...
Mark:  Who asked for spaghetti tonight?
Adde:  Me
Mark:  Who made the spaghetti for you?
Adde:  Mom
Mark:  Should you say something to mom then for making it?
Adde:  Mom, you're a good cooker!

She has us smiling so much!  Feel like there are so many things that I forget if I don't record them somewhere.  And so many have been forgotten as they are lost in my brain somewhere.

Not a game

Eleanor, I repeat, this is not a game. Please refer to my losing all control comment on a previous post. Sure feels like it some days:)

My Little Diva

Seriously, the girl has got some style. Leggings and heels are absolutely necessary for walking around the yard watering plants with a spray bottle.

Losing control

Sometimes I think I've lost all control...or is this me learning patience...or is this teaching Adde how to be a helper...or am I just lazy. Perhaps this should be a multiple choice question...

Scissors

The obsession to cut started with cutting coupons just like I did. Now she wants to cut all the time. She's actually pretty good at it. With help she was able to trace her own hand and cut it out. We made a high five poster for daddy with her hand cut out.

Notice in the video that she chomps her mouth every time she closes the scissors...haha! First time I've notice that.

Growing Up

It's just fun to watch all the things your baby learns to do. Hard to believe that it wasn't that long ago that all Eleanor did was lay on the floor. Now she is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up on things, so even watching this first attempt at lunging for something seems so long ago.





I feel like we had a video entitled "Adde Jump Up" about two years ago. Really should look back in the archives to compare. Maybe another time.

When daddy's in charge...

things are run a little bit differently.  This was his entertainment one evening.

Such girls

Big stuff...

or so she thinks she is...graham crackers, Ritz crackers, Cheerios, cheese pieces. I think I am ready for the table food stage though. Making baby food is not as fun the second time around.

Bob

The new (well not so new anymore) summer do! Makes her look even older.

Meeting Dora and Diego

Dora and Diego made an apperance at the Mall of America. I knew Adde would love it. I knew it would also be crazy to attend. Thankfully my friend Candy came with along with her two boys (the day after being really sick too...don't know how she did it). We stood in line for a good 40 minutes, but the kids were surprisingly good. I wish I could have recorded Adde's face when she saw Dora. Such excitement for a character! The good/bad thing about these Toddler Tuesday events at the mall are that kids eat free. By lunch time we had two crabby babies that had not yet napped and two wild toddlers that just wanted to run through the mall. Somehow we made it through lunch, back to the car, and home - completely exhausted. But I think definitely worth it. Just don't ask me to do it again anytime soon.

Good Hair Day

for both of them:)

Where are my babies?

Glasses Everywhere

The things that happen to you when you're the second child.

We're getting ready for the sunshine! We had snow again this morning on the ground...but thankfully is gone this afternoon.

This winter...

we have tried to be creative to stay entertained. Some things worked better than others. The first idea was a flop. We made bird cookies out of old bread pieces, spread peanut butter on them, and sprinkled seeds on top. You were supposed to use actual bird seed, but do we have any of that laying around? No. Hence the sesame seeds.

We took them outside to hang on our trees. We waited and watched. We saw no birds or squirrels for days. We did, however, see one big brown dog jumping up and trying to get a bird cookie every time he was outside. That same brown dog also came back inside salivating everywhere and leaving drool spots all over the floor. I'm pretty sure Titus somehow managed to eat all of them and leave a mess on our floor. Successful entertainment? Questionable.

Next we tried a gingerbread house. Michael's was clearancing them out in January for $1. Seemed like $1 well spent, as Adde enjoyed it, AND especially since the majority of this activity happened while I was gone at youth group. Way to entertain your girls, daddy!

Fun and games

All is fun and games until you get your head whammed into the door frame by your big sister. Totally an accident, but totally a meltdown for both of them. I think Adde was afraid she would get a story taken away and Ella was just surprised and hurt. I guessing toughening up is what sisters do.

Moving on...

to the highchair!! Seems to work better than being on the table in the Bumbo. The rest of the table contents are at risk in that situtation. Although Adde cracks up whenever Eleanor grabs something on the table she is not supposed to. Makes for entertaining meals.

Buddies

Eleanor and her friend Michael who is 9 days younger than her. They just kept passing their toys back and forth (or stealing from each other). As long as some toy was in reach, both were happy. I look forward to seeing these two play together as they grow up:)

Salon Sarah Lutheran

We now have a stylist living at our house - Sarah Lutheran. Adde refers to herself as Sarah Lutheran on a routine basis - when she's cutting hair, being Teddy's mommy, etc. The name is a combination of her babysitter and hair stylist, and the church we attend BSF. Sarah Lutheran has lived at our house for a few months now.

Who loves squash?

How We Roll

unfortunately still into April.

Can they get any cuter?

I don't think so:)