alex & erica . . . & elsie & donnie!!!

Our Piano Virtuoso

2012-01-29T16:00:00.001-06:00

Elsie has been taking piano lessons for a month and a half now. She's able to do some scales up and down with one finger and can even play twinkle twinkle little star!!!

Sledding adventures!

2012-01-29T16:00:00.000-06:00

Donnie loving & showing gaga to the camera and loving sledding!

2012-01-27T20:53:00.001-06:00

Elsie drawing 2 "gaga" giraffes for her brother :)

2012-01-24T21:03:00.000-06:00

happy days in the life of E & D

2012-01-22T11:27:00.001-06:00

Best buddies

2012-01-19T20:42:00.001-06:00

updates continued

2012-01-16T22:09:00.006-06:00

The past month has been New Year's celebrating, sledding, playing, more fun with cousins and family, and this past week, Elsie's winter gala at daycare where she sang as a penguin with her friends!

Elsie reading lots and lots of books with grandma

Slides in January!

Elsie and Emma

Elsie and Daddy playing with playdoh that the kids made with Erica's good friend, Katie, when she babysat for us!

Donnie copying his sister below - "ta-da"!

Elsie showing off her mad PJ design skills!

Elsie and the love of her life - Gimli

Gimli grooming Nikko - look at that tongue!

Elsie her NYE hat that she made herself, with her new favorite toy, Thomas, and her calico critters hitching a ride. Life is good in Elsie-land.

More sledding fun!

We ran the Polar Dash 5K on New Years Day - the kids did great with hand warmers between them and lots of layers in their insulated stroller and mommy survived her third 5K since end of October! :)

The Hawaiian shirts made us feel warmer. :)

Nikko baby

The Gimster

Silly face Elsie

Sweet lil man - he wears his "hat on" all over and all the time!

More December updates

2012-01-16T21:55:00.004-06:00

Papa and Donnie reading stories

Our smiling boy

Christmas morning with the Thomas train "what that runs by itself!" from Santa! :)

Elsie getting cookies ready for Santa on Christmas Eve

Playing with her Calico Critters - "lining them up for a family picture"

Making a gingerbread house!

What we've been up to

2012-01-16T21:28:00.006-06:00

A few updates from our past two months. We had many holiday celebrations with family, plus the kids birthdays in December (and into January). Here's a few pictures!

We celebrated Christmas up in Holdingford, visiting Alex's grandparents and they had a great time with Elsie and Donnie. They got such joy out of seeing the kiddos and playing with them.

Elsie and Great Grandpa playing froggies.

Elsie reading with Uncle Austin and Auntie Alli

Elsie got to play with Great Grandpa's marble ramp that he made years ago for Alex and our generation. Elsie and Donnie love them! Grandpa Edward has made such amazing wooden toys over the decades. Still loved by kids! :)

Donnie, Elsie and Jaxon playing at Donnie's birthday party

Mimi and Donnie

Papa and Donnie

"I'm TWOOOOOO!"

Daddy and Donnie had a playdate at the Children's museum and Donnie loved his "bubble hands"

Sledding on one of the only snow days we've had this year.

Playing with trains

...and her Calico Critter sets - she loves setting them up for dinners and putting them to bed. Look at the detail!

Elsie's 4th birthday and Choo Choo Bob's

Opening presents with her cousins

Some grandma love!

Alex with our good friends, Sam, Lucy, Anna, and Marion (sans cute little baby girl Eleanor who I may have been holding at this picture opp!) :)

Decorating the Christmas tree

Elsie "hanging with her ee ee"

Cute bedtime buddies!!!

2012-01-16T16:19:00.001-06:00

Elsie making breakfast for us (blueberry scones) while Donnie washes dishes!

2012-01-13T07:40:00.000-06:00

Sledding finally!! (well bundled)

2012-01-02T16:16:00.000-06:00

One more post (bc uploading being weird!)

2011-12-31T13:52:00.001-06:00

We went to the Como Park New Years reZOOlution today where we made hats and then beach balls dropped at noon from a big net. Each of the kiddos got a ball and loved seeing the monkeys and seeing how crazy people get after counting down from 10! :).

Happy New Year to all - here's to 2012 bringing peace, joy and love your way!

2011-12-31T13:48:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T13:46:00.001-06:00

Happy new years!

2011-12-31T13:42:00.000-06:00

Holiday bliss

2011-12-25T22:27:00.001-06:00

Happy holidays from our family to yours!

Ready for Santa...

2011-12-25T00:09:00.000-06:00

Santa!

2011-12-20T21:17:00.001-06:00

We visited Santa at Choo Choo Bob's and Elsie was very excited! Donnie - not so much. :)

Our birthday babies!

2011-12-20T21:14:00.001-06:00

Our little boy is 2!

2011-12-15T20:03:00.003-06:00

We really aren't sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way, our little buddy stopped being our little baby and became our little boy. Donnie, you add so much joy to our lives - you're a great helper in the kitchen (ours and yours!), you brighten our days with your love of trucks, painting, and being like your big sister, your cuddles and snuggles, your kisses and hugs, and even adding a bit of mischief now that you are getting into the twos! We feel so blessed to have your smiles, your adorable belly laughs, your excitement for life, and your love of your Gaga and bananas.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our dear Donnie!

Happy Birthday to our 4 year old!

2011-12-10T09:02:00.002-06:00

We've been thinking about the amazingness of our children lately and the fact that our Elsie darlin' is 4 years old today is almost unbelievable!

Happy Birthday to our dear Elsie bug!!

We are so proud to be your parents and couldn't be happier that you are in our lives! Your exuberance, your joy, your smiles, your funnies, your love of trains, monkeys (ee ee's), and sparkles bring such joy to our lives. You have transformed our lives into a happier world and there is nothing we love more than watching you and your brother figure out life, while jumping and laughing along the way.

Keep sparkling, bugaboo, and know that we love you oh so much - to the moon

. . . and back!

Elsie's first piano lessons!

2011-12-04T21:37:00.002-06:00

We are starting Elsie on piano and she had her first lesson on Saturday. Her teacher came in our house and E did so well! Her teacher, Carolyn, was impressed with E's ability to concentrate. She was a bit wiggly by the end, but really enjoyed it and even asked to practice today (didn't take much to get mommy sitting with her on the piano!) :) We are really excited and hope she likes it enough to continue.

Papa turns 25!

2011-12-04T21:32:00.002-06:00

We celebrated Papa's birthday recently - it was an important one this year - 25 years young! ;) Elsie loved helping him blow out his candles.

Grandma, Donnie, Elsie, and Papa

Helping the birthday boy

Elsie had marble families made up of 4 marbles, each in a necklace, which were their houses. It was so cute until monster Donnie came and destroyed the houses or Nikko and Cedar came and swept them away! :) She's getting so creative these days!

Playing marbles with uncle Austin

Playing Cootie with daddy, Grandma and mommy!

updates and new camera shots :)

2011-12-04T21:28:00.002-06:00

More fun with the new camera!

our silly gal

Mimi playing 'simon says' with the kiddos - pretty impressive that after eating pie (sugar rush!) she had them all laying quietly on the ground! Donnie wasn't sure what was up, but he wanted to be like the big kids :)

E with her cousin Kylie

Mimi and Donnie

Our noble Nikko

Precious daddy and Donnie

Love the pics of Daddy with his kids!

Elsie's first piano lesson!

2011-12-03T21:04:00.001-06:00

Elsie had her first lesson today on piano and it was so sweet! She did such a good job. We are going slow and seeing if she wants to play right now and so far she's taken a huge liking - and she loves her Kindermusik teacher, which helps! More pictures to come when we can download from our camera.

The cute ones

2011-12-02T22:00:00.001-06:00

Chasing & riding the mall train ("choo choo!")

2011-12-02T21:59:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving in RW

2011-12-02T21:57:00.000-06:00

New Camera!

2011-11-26T21:36:00.003-06:00

We were able to get ourselves a new camera and we are really excited to be trying it out! Here's a few to get us started. Notice the darling boy who loves the camera! :)

Celebrations for the LMFT!

2011-11-19T16:13:00.001-06:00

Erica passed her oral license exam and is now fully done with her licensure! It's been quite the journey and to celebrate we had a 2003 Hewitt Cabernet from our Napa trip 5 yrs ago. We've been saving it for awhile and thought this was a really good reason to open it!

Playing with some new toys

2011-11-19T16:09:00.000-06:00

Camping in October for Mommy's 31st!

2011-11-09T16:05:00.010-06:00

In mid-October we went on a week long camping trip up to Grand Marais and the North Shore. We stayed at Temperance River State Park - one of our favorites and enjoyed the colorful leaves and cool weather. We were probably the only crazy people with two small children with us when it was in the mid-30s at night, but we had fun nonetheless. Pictures are backwards - most recent at top.

Elsie excited to come home and see her Gimli!

Gooseberry falls

The wind was incredible our last day - we threw more rocks in the water and enjoyed the sunny skies!

Elsie was such a good helper putting up and taking down the tent. Here she is helping mommy take it down.

Bundled up for bed!

One of our many hikes

Pretty puppy

Can't get enough of these smiles!

"Let's start the day!"

Nikko being unsure of being stuck in a cold tent and us taking a picture of her so early in the morning.

Silly Elsie - what we get for most pictures these days!

Many naps for D while we were camping were in the day pack while we hiked around.

Mommy and Elsie painting - a tradition!

The sunrises and sunsets were incredible

Elsie being a lighthouse - Grand Marais

A picture for a new tradition - had one last year just like this and now this one. :)

Twinsies

Our little mountain goat - she always wanted to go off on her own and then meet us. :)

Setting up camp

Helping daddy set up the tent

It was a great camping trip, as usual! We love being out in nature with nothing but the quietness of it all, the waves on the lake, and throwing rocks endlessly into the water! Until next year's camping....

Raking leaves into pumpkin bags

2011-10-23T21:27:00.000-05:00

We have great helpers in the yard work arena!

Fall days!

2011-10-23T21:26:00.001-05:00

2011-10-23T21:24:00.001-05:00

Best friends

2011-10-23T21:23:00.001-05:00

rainy camping day coffee shop blog post

2011-10-13T15:08:00.005-05:00

it's raining today on our camping trip for erica's bday week up north, so we ventured to a coffee shop (one that even allows pets - so nikko can dry off!!) and are hanging in the dry, letting kids play with toys and doing a little trip picture maintenance!

here's a quick preview of our week so far - a week punctuated by family time, rocks, a cake that is quickly disappearing, and hikes through fall leaves of the north shore. it's beautiful up here. a little chilly at times, but pretty darn awesome nonetheless.

mommy and the kiddos

the intensity at which the girl throws rocks is unparalleled...

happy birthday mommy!!

"i'm a dog i'm a dog i'm a dog i'm a dog i'm a dog i'm a dog"

our favorite hike in pretty much all of MN - temperance river state park's river walk

donnie!!

family picture time

elsie the "mountain goat sleeping on a rock."

full moon and a still lake superior

moonlight love birds

a little rock climbing anyone?!

kiddos on the beach

Sisterly love in sharing her ice cream!

2011-10-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

Como Zoo!

2011-10-07T20:29:00.000-05:00

We spent some time with our cousins - Emma, Josh and Laura today! The kids had a blast and we had a really nice time catching up. It's amazing how fast the kids grow!

More zoo!

2011-10-07T20:28:00.000-05:00

We almost got all 4 of them to look at the same time!

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T22:06:00.001-05:00

Daddy's Marathon!

2011-10-04T20:22:00.001-05:00

We are so proud of our hubby/daddy who ran the TC Marathon on Sunday Oct 2nd! He beat his time 9 years ago (in 2002) by 8 minutes and had a great time! It was a beautiful day and Mimi drove around with the kids and I and Alli and Austin were there cheering on Alex and some friends. All in all a great day - we were able to see him at every stop that we tried to get to! :) Way to go, Alex - we are SO proud of you!

Elsie didn't recognize Andy and Andrew who came to cheer her daddy on so this picture was too funny not to post! :)

The finisher! 3 hours 44 minutes!

Donnie was asleep in the car with Mimi but was being thought of :)

2011-10-02T20:21:00.001-05:00

Twins game! We took Elsie to the last Twins game of the season and they won 1-0 in the last inning - she loves Twins games and had a blast eating Kettle Corn and cheering them on! She was melted butter by the time we got home at 11pm but she did great overall and we had such fun with her that night. Looking forward to next season already!

We helped out at Grandma and Papa's Vineyard for picking a couple weekends ago and here Elsie is helping Grandma make a pizza - they have amazing wood fired pizzas at the winery these days so it's a good treat!

Everybody helping pick the grapes! Donnie did more eating then picking, we think!

The annual fall stop at Sargeant's Nursery in RW - a favorite place! We got some beautiful mums and ran around the hay bales maze.

Fun times this fall

2011-10-01T20:20:00.001-05:00

Our helpers in the kitchen! We made some raspberry jam from Grandma's raspberry patches and the kiddos love putting raspberries on their fingers before eating them! They'd turn into raspberries if we let them!

Licking the raspberry jam spoon!

Could she be more sticky?! :)

My matching cute cute boys!

Gotta love those smiles!

This is typical play time at our house. Gimli and Nikko are usually in the vicinity (as you can see by Gimli's tail) and the kids are playing with trains or reading books. This day they decided to bring a whole pile of books over near the dining room table and read - it was so cute!

More play time - the best toys are always the ones you pay the least for! :) Who knew cardboard boxes and filling would be so fun to play with?! Or sticking your sister in a box her size?!

Our beautiful Nikko

Our silly Gimli - he had such a crazy sleep position this day!

Our lil baker

Daddy's 31st!

2011-09-26T20:43:00.007-05:00

So, these are a bit out of order and belated since Alex's birthday was almost a month ago, but we're getting there! :) Here's an update of all the fun we had for his birthday the weekend before and the day of.

Daddy had lots of help opening up his presents :)

The kids enjoyed making daddy a t-shirt-"Daddy, we LOVE to BUG you!"

with finger print bugs.

Alex picked strawberries for his food this year (for those of you don't know, we pick a food for our birthdays and every meal on the day is based around that food - i.e. every meal had strawberries in it) - Elsie helped him pick - she's obsessed with strawberries lately!

Dessert was a lemon pound cake with strawberry lemon curd cream with mint (Amazing!)

Salmon with strawberry, mango, pineapple salsa (also, amazing!)

Family walk at Minnehaha Falls

Daddy & his kiddos

Making chocolate covered strawberries!

Enjoying dessert!

Out of order :) - more help with presents - even from Gimli, the kitty!

The weekend before his birthday, we went to a Twins game and then got to walk the bases with the kids after. It's for kids under 11 on Sundays after the game, but our kids are fortunately too young to go by themselves, so mommy and daddy have to run the bases with them.... :) :) :)

Happy Family

Donnie hitting home plate

Popcorn! Yeah!

One of daddy's presents - strawberry popsicle molds - we made great strawberry popsicles with the kids.

Our kitchen helpers - they love to cook (which means we know they are ours!) :)

Happy Birthday to our amazing daddy and hubby! We are so blessed to have you a part of our lives - we love you so much! "Love love" (how lil D says I love you)

Buddies!

2011-09-22T15:34:00.001-05:00

Lover of raspberries!

2011-09-15T22:09:00.001-05:00

Last week or so...

2011-09-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

Daddy's gifts

2011-09-02T09:20:00.001-05:00

We have more to post on Daddy's great birthday this week, but until then, here are two of daddy's best gifts! Aren't they precious and adorable?! :) (We aren't biased or anything!) Happy Birthday, the greatest hubby & daddy ever!

Twins game!

2011-08-28T17:40:00.000-05:00

To celebrate Alex's upcoming birthday, we went to a Twins game today and they won 11-4 against Detroit. Very exciting game with 3 home runs! The kids did great, as always, and we ran the bases with them after the game which may have been a bigger highlight for mommy & daddy. ;)

We had some of our best MN sweet corn last night!

2011-08-28T17:37:00.001-05:00

Kids helped shuck the corn!

Summer kiddos!

2011-08-19T17:51:00.000-05:00

Kids Sharing Ice-cream. A beautiful thing

2011-08-15T22:08:00.004-05:00

On the long ride home from camping, the kids (who are amazing on long car rides reading books, laughing, singing songs, napping and playing with toys) deserved a quick ice cream treat. Elsie wanted a Marshmallow Sundae - she's never had marshmallow cream on a sundae before, we have no idea but the option was there and she went for it! So, she, being the big sister shared it with her little brother - with a small caveat as she outlines below!!:

Elsie catches her first "fishies" - off dock & on boat!

2011-08-13T17:06:00.000-05:00

Art festival!

2011-08-06T14:01:00.001-05:00

We spent today at the Loring park art festival with aunt Paula, which was so fun. We love art festivals and we put a lot of things on our "wish" list! :) We parked near the Walker Art Center and Elsie freaked out in excitement over the "huge spoon and huge cherry!". She had everyone within ear shot laughing. So much joy to share with the world.

Best friends!

2011-07-29T18:42:00.001-05:00

Perfect evening for a family walk!

2011-07-29T18:19:00.000-05:00

Artistic kiddos

2011-07-26T11:15:00.000-05:00

Public service announcement

2011-07-24T22:39:00.000-05:00

Remember any cans of pop you were going to have in freezer to chill quickly for a half hour before leaving the house.

Abby & Christian's wedding reception

2011-07-16T15:27:00.001-05:00

Abby & Christian's wedding reception

2011-07-16T15:25:00.001-05:00

Abby & Christian's wedding reception

2011-07-16T15:23:00.001-05:00

Abby & Christian's wedding reception

2011-07-16T15:22:00.001-05:00

Abby & Christian are married!!!

2011-07-15T15:29:00.001-05:00

My beautiful sister, Abby, got married to the amazing Christian yesterday at the Guthrie's endless bridge. It was a great ceremony and celebration of two incredible people. Abby is a stunning bride! The kiddos did great too - and were super cute, of course! Tonight we have the reception and party so we'll continue posting as we get more! :)

2011-07-15T15:24:00.001-05:00

2011-07-15T15:23:00.003-05:00

2011-07-15T15:23:00.001-05:00

Abby & Christian are married!

2011-07-15T15:22:00.001-05:00

Best conversation with Elsie today:

2011-07-08T19:12:00.001-05:00

Mommy: how did the [bathtime hair rinsing plastic] cup break?
Eef: Jiminy did it.
mommy: who's Jiminy?
Eef: he's a mean guy who chases people and eats all of our blood.
mommy: and then mommy and daddy save you?
Eef: yes, mommy and daddy save me.

Sent from my iPhone

Happy 4th of July!!!

2011-07-04T15:48:00.000-05:00

Listening to music and dancing with mommy!

2011-07-03T22:13:00.001-05:00

Beautiful evening!

2011-07-03T19:44:00.001-05:00

We rode our bikes with kids in the trailer/stroller to Como park and lake. We had a picnic, played on the playground and are now enjoying music at the pavilion listening to the MN sinfonia.

A budding friendship!

2011-07-02T21:23:00.001-05:00

Staying cool on a very hot MN morning!

2011-07-01T10:59:00.000-05:00

Gimli!

2011-06-29T22:14:00.003-05:00

Meet Gimli - our little three month old brown tabby that we adopted this week. He's a joy to our lives and brings some much needed kitty love into our home. He's been a great kitten so far, which is remarkable - even to us! He let's Elsie play with him and pick him up and Elsie is more in love than ever! She (and her parents!) has wanted a kitty so badly since we sadly lost our Legolas last year. Gimli (name from LOTR, of course!) is spunky, fun, super cuddly, and very affectionate.

Father's Day Camping!

2011-06-26T21:25:00.010-05:00

It's become a tradition for our family to go camping for Father's Day every year and this year was no exception! We headed to Temperance River State Park (30 min south of Grand Marais) for a couple days last weekend. I'm late getting these up, but they are worth the wait! Happy Father's Day to an amazing, caring, fun, and loving daddy to our two little joys!

This is Donnie's smile for the camera - you'll notice his mouth wide open in quite a few shots! :)

Look at that sweet grin!

Donnie does the wrinkle nose smile well too

Nikko climbing rocks with Elsie

The newest adventure in Mommy and Daddy's lives is that Elsie is a fearless climber! She was scaling rocks of all shapes and sizes and was actually quite good at it. She was able to get her footing and keep herself steady. We were freaked out but also proud!

Watching the water

Eating in the screen porch

Daddy & kids on the bridge

Elsie found this rock on our path and declared it was her "favorite rock ever that I have to climb every time I see it."

Trying to get Nikko to strike a pose on one of the rocks we have her pose on each year - she wasn't as cooperative with the river raging more with higher water this year!

We were much more cautious with these places and Elsie's adventurous nature - her tiptoes almost put us over the edge! This was a shear cliff into raging waters and she was totally calm (unlike us!).

Adventure girl

Watching Daddy start a fire

Roasting marshmellows!

Eating marshmellows!

Donnie kept himself occupied by pouring Nikko's water into her food bowl (usually with no food!) and then spilling the water everywhere!

Mommy's little koala!

Our beautiful Nikko puppy

Rock climber extraordinare

Daddy's little Koala

The waves were HUGE on Lake Superior! It was so windy and crazy weather but you can hardly tell we were being blown away at this picture. But, the waves were the biggest we've ever seen here and we've been here many years in a row!

Elsie and Daddy went to see Gooseberry falls on the way back home and it started pouring when they were out there. Got some great pictures and then brought back two soaked people when they were back in the car!

Snoozing away after all the camping adventures. His naps weren't as great on this trip but they both slept like rockstars at night while camping!

After being home, Elsie was having too much fun camping and wanting to go again so badly that we put up our backpacking tent we used in Europe in her room and she's been sleeping in it all week. She's SO incredibly happy!

Happy Father's Day!

First nice day in a long time!

2011-06-24T11:01:00.000-05:00

Celebrated by bike riding to Como Park and trying to fly a kite. (not windy enough!)

Dads Rule.

2011-06-19T10:40:00.000-05:00

Especially me.

Elsie flies her first kite!

2011-06-18T13:24:00.003-05:00

Grandma brought over a kite for the kiddos a couple days ago and we finally had enough wind (kind of) to at least get it up in the air. Elsie loved running with the kite flying behind her!

New Playground

2011-06-08T11:08:00.002-05:00

First, a big thank you to Mike, Paula and Pete for letting us have Pete's playground from their house (and Lenny for helping get it over here!)!! Elsie has been playing with it every day and loves it. Here's a quick video of her climbing up the slide and then the trip down.

Donnie discovers the hose!

2011-06-02T16:32:00.001-05:00

Ah, the kiddos

2011-05-22T22:38:00.000-05:00

Donnie falling asleep after a walk on the grandparents bluff, a post-painting adventure, and Elsie showing off her new tat and guns!

Ice cream!

2011-05-18T17:34:00.000-05:00

Good to the last drop!!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

2011-05-08T21:24:00.007-05:00

After a few really stressful days of work for Erica, we decided to take mothers day weekend off and go away to a couple of our favorite places on earth for some peace and quiet and family time! We packed the car, headed to Grand Marais and chilled out to the extreme. Days were filled mostly with walking on the beach, trying our hardest to fill Lake Superior with as many rocks as possible, and enjoying the clean air and bright stars at night (something we miss having moved to St. Paul!). Below is a snapshot of our trip. We love the North Shore and cannot wait to get back up there.

Mommy and Donnie getting acquainted with rocks and the water.

Throwing the rocks is so much fun!

By now, Elsie is a champion rock thrower!

Getting the hang of rocks + water = fun.

Filling the lake is so much work, gotta have some fun too.

Dinner and Sven and Ole's Pizza - a favorite and traditional stop.

Elsie touring town on the new bike

Donnie rides in style

Elsie thinking the set up for sunset pictures is all about her (but of course it is, isn't it?!)

Sunset at Grand Marais harbor

Sunrise over the bay

Elsie and Eee-Eee watching the water

Skipping stones!

More rock throwing!

Eee-Eee has quite the rock collection

Ice cream break

Our little mountain goat climbing on Artist Point

Mommy and the kiddos! What an amazing trio!!

Family pic at the end of Artist Point.

Elsie scouting out some good puddles

Daddy and the kiddos

Mommy and Elsie traversing the crevasse!

Traditional family pic spot. We've been up every year since Elsie was still in the womb, though this is our first time without Nikko (she had to stay back this time since the hotel didn't allow dogs). Some day we'll put up our family progression through the years!

Just outside Grand Marais was a bald eagle in its nest and we were able to get some good pics of before it flew off.

A stop at Tettegouche State Park and the pebble beach on the lake, one of our favorite places, for more - rock throwing, of course!

So, last year, we were here about one week before the arch (in back ground, the pyre standing alone used to be connected forming an arch) fell down. Here's mommy and the kiddos a year later. We'll get a comparison pic up from last year when we get home.

Never a dull moment.

So many rocks, so little time.

Precious moments on Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there. We wouldn't be here without you!

Slides and bikes

2011-05-05T18:43:00.001-05:00

Last week, Donnie found a new way to go down big twisty slides (to the extreme enjoyment of himself as well as his sister) and Elsie got a big girl bike and took her first ride around the block!!! Videos of the big-kid developements!!:

Donnie's big slide!

Elsie's new bike!

Swinging on a spring day!

2011-05-03T22:01:00.000-05:00

Children springtime right of passage

2011-05-03T11:42:00.001-05:00

Elsie playing with centipedes!

Pretzels!

2011-04-30T14:55:00.001-05:00

We made pretzels from scratch today and they are amazing! And other than rising time, easy & fairly quick to make!

Two peas in a pod

2011-04-29T13:09:00.001-05:00

On our first bike ride of the year!!

Daddy, Donnie is a tiger!

2011-04-27T10:31:00.001-05:00

"I gave him lines and whiskers!"

I swear I was only out of the room for a couple minutes...

Donnie Walks!!!

2011-04-16T23:07:00.002-05:00

Donnie took his first real steps today! He's been walking along furniture and walls and taking a step or two before lunging into our laps, but nothing like this. We literally asked if he wanted to go to the bathtub and off he went! If we woulda known it was that easy, he'd have been walking a few months earlier?! So, here's a video of an excited family (especially big sister) as Donnie emerged from baby to official toddler-hood!

Sidewalk-chalking!

2011-04-08T21:17:00.000-05:00

More Twins!

2011-04-08T20:50:00.000-05:00

Twins win!

2011-04-08T18:06:00.000-05:00

Home opener and kids did great!

Donnie's first trip down a slide!

2011-03-30T20:13:00.002-05:00

the little guy decided he wanted to join in on the fun his sister was having at the park today. can already tell when he can finally walk, we're in for some trouble . . .

BREAD!!!

2011-03-28T15:56:00.001-05:00

fresh bread even the boy can't put down. soooooooooooooo good!!!!

Best mommy with kiddos picture ever

2011-03-20T13:40:00.000-05:00

Professional portraits for Elsie & Donnie

2011-03-06T18:36:00.007-06:00

We have been so happy with Michelle Huber Portraits. She got our adorable kiddos for their 1st and 3 year photos a month or so ago. A huge thanks to Michelle, who does a great job capturing our kids personalities (can you tell?!) and always is very easy to work with. Here's a few of our favorites from the tons we have to choose from! Having such photo-genic kids makes for tough decision making when it comes to picking the best ones out. ;)

What happens when Donnie meets yogurt on his own!

2011-03-06T08:17:00.000-06:00