Projects, projects, projects....

Summer is officially here at our house! School is DONE for the summer!

And summer means big projects at our house!

Project #1: Siding the garage. (In progress...)

Project #2: Building a new swingset. (complete!)

Project #3: Planting the yard. (in the background above) (half complete!)

Project #4: Planting the garden. (almost done!)

Project #5: Retaining wall & deck. (hopefully starting soon....)

Project #6: Painting the basement. (Hopefully starting soon also!)

It's a big to do list, but hopefully it all gets done! HAPPY SUMMER TIME!!

Bring on the Spring!

Hello!

Ok, so I know I'm terrible at keeping this up to date. It's been nearly three months since the last post. I'm sorry!! But these girls are hard to keep up with!

Today, it's nearly 80 degrees out, and it's about time!!!! We've had some crazy weather this spring, and I haven't been a big fan of it. But today, it almost feels like summer!

The girls are doing great! Emma was 9 months last week and she has been doing a lot better (except those darn teeth that are coming in on the top finally!) She is happy and loves playing with Maria. She likes to play with the toy playhouse and chewing on anything she can find. She's also enjoying eating big girl food! She's still working on crawling, but she's pretty darn good at rolling around to where she wants to be. She likes to talk a lot too, even though her talk sounds like screaming, she's smiling! :) At Emma's 9 month checkup yesterday, she weighed 16 lbs. 4 oz. Just 2 oz more than Maria at this age. That was quite surprising for us since she's wearing much bigger clothes than Maria did at 9 months. Everything else went well at the doctor's...and even better news... no shots!

Maria is growing up so fast too! Her words and sentences are improving daily! She loves to sing and dance and read nursery rhymes. She already knows several of them! She also continues to love doing puzzles, reading books, and playing games. Another favorite---playing outside (usually in the mud! :). Last night, she planted trees with daddy!

We've been busy around the house cleaning up the yard of all the lovely house scraps, etc. And we finally got half of the yard planted. Let's hope that the grass springs up here in the next week or so even after our severe weather we had two nights ago! Joe's been working on getting the garage sided as well as finishing up some sheetrock in the basement. Then...next step is the deck!

Here's a small look at what we've been up to the past few months:

Maria turns 2!

Wednesday came and went, and my sweet little girl is now TWO! I can't even believe it! Here is a picture of the big girl on her birthday! And here is a picture of her Dora cake that I made! She loved it! She kept saying "ria's cake"!

And here is her with some of her presents, including her new potty chair! Let's hope she puts it to use soon!!


We also had a doctor's appointment yesterday. Maria is still below the 1st percentile for her weight. But she's still growing...even if not very fast! She seems very healthy otherwise! She still loves being big sister and now she pretends she is the doctor and Emma is her patient! :) So cute!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Emma is 6! (months that is...)

Yesterday Emma had her 6 month appointment after turning 6 months on Sunday! I can't believe it. The little squirt is only 14 lbs and 26.5 inches long. For her length, she is in the 78 percentile! Way bigger than Maria at this age. She is much more normal in size than her dear big sister. In fact, Emma wore the same outfit the other day that Maria wore for her one year pictures last winter! :)

In other news, Emma is rolling around like crazy and loving to grab and chew on things. She also is eating lots of baby food and loving it! (except the green beans!) She gives us lots of smiles, but her sister knows exactly how to make her laugh and laugh! It is quite entertaining.

Maria's new favorite thing is playing with her new kitchen that my cousin gave us. She loves stirring up food in her pots and feeding us supper. She makes sure we have our bibs on too! :) She also enjoys snuggling with Emma and giving her kisses. She is usually a great sister, but still has to learn how to share sometimes! She is also very good at telling us how old she is going to be in a few short weeks! 2! She is looking forward to her party!

In the last month we have been busy playing and playing! We had a play date with cousin Thatcher the other day, playing outside in the snow and going on a sleigh ride, continuing playing with all the new Christmas toys, playing with grandmas and grandpas, and playing with friends at the Superbowl party!

Here are some things we are looking forward to in the near future:

1. Another new baby cousin arriving any day now!

2. This weekend with Grandma and Taya

3. A trip to a water park

4. Hopefully some warmer weather! :)

5. Daddy's snowmobile trip out to West Yellowstone

6. Maria's 2nd Birthday!

Hope you all have some fun things to look forward to too in the middle of this snowy, cold winter!

The Holidays

It's snowing again as I sit here. I just can't believe how much snow we have already gotten this year! Joe is of course thrilled because he can snowmobile like crazy! I enjoy days like this watching the beautiful snow fall. It's so beautiful... until you have to drive in it! :)

Well, another Christmas and New Years have come and gone. (sorry, I'm a little late in updating!) It was a wonderful holiday season for us. Christmas week started will a big snowfall (over a foot!) And having lots of family come home. We had many celebrations. Christmas eve morning and early afternoon we had a nice winter walk followed by sledding, Maria trying cross country skiing for the first time, snowmobiling and roasting hot dogs over a campfire. That evening we went to Christmas Eve Mass. It was a lovely start to the Christmas season, except that Emma wasn't very happy to be in church! :( After mass, we went to the Heidelberger's to have appetizers and a steak and lobster supper. Then of course we had gift exchange. Emma enjoyed opening her presents, and then continued to be crabby for the remainder of the evening for her first Christmas. Maria enjoyed playing with cousin Olivia and honestly didn't have much interest in opening her presents. Olivia would open hers and Maria just wanted to play with her toys (even though she had almost the same things in her unopened presents!)

Christmas day, Maria was excited that Santa had arrived and brought presents. Then we loaded up the car and headed over the the Staples for a Prime Rib dinner and more presents. Maria loved all her new gifts, especially her new little Mickey four wheeler she can drive. New Years Eve was another great celebration with family at the local bar, followed by games at our house. The weather was terrible, so we decided to keep it close to home. It turned out to be a great time, until we got the call that Maria had the flu! During the next few days, we all got sick! :( Just in time to go back to work. We are almost over all our sickness now finally!!

Last week the girls had some quality time with both of their grandparents as Joe and I ventured to Indiana for a friends wedding. It was a long trip! (12 hours one way) But we had a very nice time. Wednesday night when we arrived, we had a nice supper with the whole wedding party followed by the bachelor/bachelorette parties. Here is a picture of us that evening, which was also our third anniversary. The waiter brought us a lovely dessert, and it was delicious!

Hope you all had a great holiday season and have a wonderful 2011!!

Emma's four months!

Hello All.

Emma turned four months yesterday!! We had another big doctor's appointment. Emma came in weighing 12 lbs. 3 oz. and 24 inches. She's a growing girl! She also had to get 3 more shots, but she did pretty good!

Emma has been giving us lots of smiles and giggles lately. We are all very happy, because we have finally discovered that she is a SOY baby! She has been so fussy for the first four months of her life. Why we didn't try soy formula earlier.... I HAVE NO IDEA! But I'm sure glad we discovered it now, because we all are in such better spirits these days! YAY!

And Emma started eating some rice cereal two nights ago, and she loves it!! TWO BOWLS last night she ate! Plus her bottle! :)

She is getting really good at holding toys and loves to chew on them too! She also loves her swing and watching her sister be silly.

Here's a cute little picture of her from this past week. All ready for Christmas! :)

And Maria has been a good little girl too. Ask her who's watching her, and she'll be sure to say in her sweet little voice..."elf." There is a small elf who has made his way to our house. He reports to Santa every night whether Maria has been a good girl. And she sure has been good. We just need to remind her every once in awhile that he's watching.... :)

Hope you're all having a great week!

It's a Shutterfly Christmas!

The first time I learned how to upload my digital pictures, I did so on Shutterfly.com. It was so simple! I could order all my prints right off the website and get them sent straight to my house! For our wedding, I even used the website to make my picture thank yous! It was great, especially for those who couldn't make it to the wedding, because they got to see pictures of our big day right away. I love using Shutterfly!

Christmas is just around the corner, and that means thoughts of Christmas cards are on my mind. Have you checked out their new line of Christmas cards? SOOO CUTE! I am seriously having a hard time deciding which one I like the best because there are SO many cute ones. Some of my favorites are the Joy Christmas, Merry Stripes, & Puzzle Pieces.

And if you still have someone on your list to buy for, you might want to check out the picture calandars, picture books or other gift items from their website! There are so many great ideas for gifts that are unique and special and can be used all year long.

Hurry & shop before December 1st and get extra savings during the Cyber Week Sale!

Are you a blogger? Shutterfly is offering 50 free Holiday Cards when you post! Simply visit this Shutterfly form and fill it out! If you still can’t get enough Shutterfly then be sure to follow them via Facebook & Twitter! Hope you enjoy Shutterfly as much as I do! :)

Winter is in the air!

As we look out the window at the beautiful snow falling today,we hope that this winter brings us lots of snow and nice weather! Especially since Joe bought a new snowmobile! Christmas shopping in this house has barely begun, but we hope that within the next few weeks it will be complete and we can enjoy the Christmas season. I especially look forward to decorating the house this weekend after chopping down our Christmas tree on Saturday.

Emma had an appointment last week, and now weighs 12.3 pounds! That is much larger than Maria was at this time. Emma was just three months old and she is already in 6 month clothing! She is doing great too! She loves to give us big smiles and talk like crazy. Although, she does have her crabby moments too, but that is ok! :) She decided she doesn't like sleeping through the night anymore, but hopefully she changes her mind again soon because Joe and I would much appreciate it.

Maria is being such a great big sister. Whenever she hears Emma start to cry, she says her name and runs over to her. She rubs her head and gives her kisses! So sweet! :)

Here are a few pictures of Emma's three month pictures taken by Joe's aunt Jill!Thanks Jill! They turned out great!

My Little Monsters

So... I know we are beyond Halloween and on to the better days of fall, deer hunting, and thoughts of an upcoming Thanksgiving. But, I have to post some pictures of my sweet little monsters all dressed up for Halloween as well as my amazing cupcakes and Halloween themed food from our Halloween party. Although I can't take credit for ALL the food, I did work extra hard on those cupcakes and mummy pizas! Enjoy! :)

Hope you all are ready for Halloween on Sunday! We sure are. Our family costumes will make their debut tomorrow at our Halloween Party that we are having, and then again on Sunday as we go out and about for Trick or Treating! Maria has gotten quite good at the phrase... She will be happy when she realizes that if she says it on Halloween, she gets treats! :)

Emma is of course getting bigger! She is such a simily girl too! (when she isn't screaming! which unfortunetly is too often) But when she's not crabby, she's smiling like crazy. And she has gotten to be quite the talker this week! She has found her voice! And the best news for us anyways, is that she is sleeping through the night! We are on a three day streak, so let's hope it continues!

We have had a busy month working on the house, but also having some fun! We had an annual hayride, a surprise party, a Vikings party, and visits from friends.








Other than that, we now have a retaining way and almost have the garage done!! YAY!! This week I already had to scrape snow and frost off... ish! So I can't wait until it's complete. The garage doors went in yesterday, and hopefully before Monday, it'll be completely insulated!

~Week of Fun~

First of all, I just have to say, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WEEK! I love fall, and this weather is just right to spend some time outside! It's been an eventful week.

We had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday for Emma. She weighed in at 9 lbs. 4 oz. The appointment went well except for those darn shots she had to get! THREE shots to be exact. :( Poor baby. Good thing daddy was there to hold her so I didn't have to watch!



Wednesday night we headed to a friends house for a nice supper and listened to the Twins lose. And Thrusday we had a friend come over to watch the Twins lose yet again. But here is Emma in her Twins gear! (yes, I know she looks like a boy in all that blue, but she had to cheer on the Twins!)



Last night Maria also had her first haircut. She was getting quite the mullet. That was fixed last night, and Maria was a little angel while getting it cut. She sat so nice!! and even got her hair curled for the first time. What a cutie!





And other than that, nothing else too exciting. Emma is eating and eating and growing and growing and she is starting to sleep better at night! She has only been getting up one time! :) The girls have been spending their time playing outside and hanging out with grandma while mom and dad are at work. How fun! And now we look forward to another beautiful weekend filled with pouring cement in our garage, a family hayride, and a party! Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Pumpkin Time!

It's fall and the cousins Oliva, Noah, Maria & Emma had a fun time in the great pumkin patch (also known as our garden :) picking out pumkins for Halloween! I can't believe it's almost October!

We survived!

Yes, we survived our weekend trip to Duluth. Terry, Joe, Carrie & Hannah survived their big Rollerblade marathon, and I survived the weekend with hardly a wink of sleep (along with Maria) :) But all in all, it was a beautiful weekend to spend in Duluth. We stayed in a nice cabin in the woods north of Duluth. The rollerbladers took off Saturday morning and we waited at the finish line to watch them go by. We spent that afternoon relaxing at the cabin. Sunday, we spent the day at Canal Park enjoying the weather and the ships at the harbor. We also spent some time at the aquarium. Maria loved seeing the fish and even got to pet one along with a stingray in the petting tanks. Then we enjoyed a nice supper followed by (my favorite) COLD STONE!!!! Maria and Olivia had a good time at Cold Stone too. They were the entertainment for the evening. They were dancing to the oldies music playing. I think we should have set out a tip cup for them. They were drawing the passerbys! haha







In other news, Emma rolled over multiple times this week from her stomach to her back! She is getting strong and able to hold her head up much better! She also is eating like crazy and growing like crazy! She's already out of her newborn clothes (which impresses us because Maria was in them until she was three months old! She is a smiley thing too! Also this week, Maria moved into her NEW room down in the basement! She seems to be doing just great in it!




And the roof is up on our garage finally! Yay!! One step closer to having a place to store the cars this winter!

Birthday Time!

With September comes lots of birthdays...which means lots of parties...and lots of cake! :) Last week we celebrated my uncle's, dad's and Joseph's birthdays. We had a celebration at our cabin. It was a good time because in attendance was my twin cousins from Germany. We have missed them, and it was good to have them back in the U.S. for a short time. It's been two years since they last visited us. Here is a picture of us cousins!



Then we celebrated Joe's birthday with a yummy steak dinner. Joe's presents this year consisted of many shirts and ties. That's what happens when you get a new job and don't have the right clothes to wear! haha Here's Maria helping to blow out the candles!



This past weekend we also celebrated a friends wedding. It was Emma's first wedding and she was quite an angel. Maria was pretty good too... (except her small fit during the VOWS at the ceremony)But she had a great time dancing at the reception. Check out this video :)And this was before she even hit the dance floor!



After all that fun, it was back to school for me today! The first day went well. Can't wait for a great school year!

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend!

Sisterly Love

This week was much less exciting than last. We have been just hanging out here at our house. And by that I mean Maria, Emma and I. Joe is in the cities for training this week for his new job! We can't wait until he comes home tomorrow night!

On Tuesday, the girls both had doctor appointments. Emma is doing well. She has gained back her birth weight and then some! She now weighs 7 lbs. 2 oz. She has been awake more this week which is more exciting than watching her sleep all the time! She has been sleeping pretty good at night (except last night when she was up ALL night!)

Maria went in for her 18 month checkup and has officially fallen off the charts for her size. Yes, she is so little that she is below the 1st percentile. She weighed just over 19 lbs. No wonder she still doesn't fit in those 18 month clothes! :) But we aren't worried about her size since she doesn't come from a very big family. Maria has been having fun with Emma this week. She wraps her up in her blanket, helps feed her a bottle, pushes her in her swing and reads her books. (look below)



Here are a few more pictures from the week!






Now I'm off to start my first day of work this Friday, and Joe is starting his new job on Monday! There is a lot to be thankful for! :)