12.22.09

one year ago today kate came kicking and screaming into the world!! our lives have not been the same!! she has brought laughter,craziness, and a ton more love into our home. can you believe what a big girl she is? we celebrated her birthday tonight and will post pics from the party soon(i promise :)).

we have enjoyed receiving everyones christmas cards and letters! i can't believe how big everyone's kid are getting. we had pics of our kiddos taken in early november by joey kenow. he has taken pictures for us before and does an awesome job. here is a link to his flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/joeykenow to see more of the pictures he took. of course, lane did NOT want his picture taken and kate was feeling shy but we got some great shots anyway.

this year has flown by, i don't know how many times jason and i have said to each other, "i can't believe kate is already 1!" last winter flew by and softball season was upon us. jason is still playing and loving every minute of it. his team is made up of alot of great guys with super great wives and there are a ton of kids to play with on game nights. we trooped along to alot of games and a bunch of tournaments. it just wouldn't be the same for the rest of the fans if lane didn't show up with his batting gloves on ready to play!

lane started level 1 hockey, learn to skate this october. he plays for 45 mins mon nights and sat mornings. monday nights are a little rough, he is tired and doesn't always want to follow directions. we are undecided if he will continue in the new year or wait again until next fall.

jason spent about 160 hours in the combine this fall during harvest. he loves farming but it was definitely exhausting!! he missed the kiddos and they missed him. of course, these hours were on top of the 40+ hours he was working at his full time job.

i have kept myself busy, busy, busy with the kids and working. in my spare free moments i have been sewing some fun little dresses for kate. i have also been knitting and reading a ton. i got a sony reader for my birthday and love it!!

this year i had my first experience shopping on black friday. my brother-in-law, kory, picked me up at 3:45 in the morning and we were off to walmart. it was a success, both of us walked out with what we wanted. i was very surprised at they way some of the other people acted! i will be more prepared and have my elbows out next year! then the monday after thanksgiving, i had my annual baking day with melissa, holly(co-worker friend), and bobbi(former co-worker and friend). we spent the whole day baking, literally 9am - 5:30! we made 12 different things and 3-4 batches of each. i am well stocked with tray for passing and gifting.

on the 14th, jason and i celebrated our 7th anniversary. my mother-in-law kept our kiddos and we spent a whole day christmas shopping at the mall of america. we ate supper at the twin cities grill then saw a late movie, the blind side. overall it was a great day.

i guess one of my new years resolutions should be to update my blog more often, so i will give it a try. have a merry christmas!

8.21.2009

Happy 3rd Birthday Lane!!!

I can't believe my "baby" is three!! He is off having a fun day with Grandpa, Grandma, and Norah at the fair. I'm sure we will get plenty of time there this afternoon and weekend. Have a great weekend!

8.5.1980

Happy Birthday Melissa!!!

I am so lucky to have such a great sister and best friend!!

7.23.09

I can't believe how fast summer is going!

Kate turned 7 months old yesterday, heres what she can do:

• sit up by herself for a long period of time
  


• eat ALOT of baby food
  


• eat crackers, puffcorn, goldfish,and misc other soft foods


• smile alot


• scoot around on her belly and rock back and forth on her hands and knees


• she has 2 teeth
  

She also loves to jump in her jumproo, chew on all of her toys and her brother's toys

We've gone to the waterpark 3 times and love it!

Here is a short video of Lane rockin out to the Jonas Brothers when I was trying to take a picture of him and Norah. It is pretty cute.

I took a self-paced class on photo editing and special effects for photos using photoshop elements, it has be fun learning more about photoshop and playing with all sorts of techniques on my photos. Here are some before and afters:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

One more doctored up just a little:

Here are a few more pictures of the kiddos:

Faces of Kate

Yep, I'm here

I have no excuses, just enjoying my family and ignoring the blog. I am going to try to update once a week, but no promises! We have been very busy now that summer is here, Jason in playing alot of softball and wishing he could be fishing more. Lane is really enjoying going to the games and playing with all of the kids there. He will tell anyone he is watching his dad hit the ball and run fast. It is really cute how much Lane loves watching Jason! Kate still pretty much just chills out in the stroller snacking or playing with a rattle.

On Memorial Day, we went to the Minnesota Zoo, we all had a blast! Lane had his face painted for the first time and he thought that was great. The Africa exhibit opened that weekend so they were doing free giraffe facepainting. Half of his face was a giraffe. The kids were exhausted that night!

Lane is really being a great big brother and such a big helper at home. He talks and plays with Kate alot. He likes to be down on the floor with her just hanging out.

Kate is doing great! She is starting to sit up all by herself and gets up on her hands and knees and rocks. I am not ready for her to start crawling yet! I think she will be getting her first couple of teeth any day now. The two bottom middle are threatening to break thru very soon. She is eating baby food three times a day and having lots of snacks. She loves club crackers, the graduates wagon wheels and puffs. She is a very hungry girl!! She is also a good sleeper, which Mom and Dad Love!!

I will post more pictures soon.

adorable

1 month pictures

We had these pictures of Kate taken a week ago. She did pretty well. I was hoping to get some on her tummy with fairy wings, but she wasn't having it at all. I was laughing the whole time. It doesn't matter, we got some good ones anyway. I went back to work yesterday, so Kate went to daycare with Lane. Lane was so cute, he was glued to her the whole time. He is not that attentive at home. When Claire was feeding her, I guess Lane was a little confused because I nurse at home so Claire had to reassure him that Mom said it was okay for her to do it.

More Pictures

Here are some of the latest pictures of Kate. She is a couple weeks old and is up to almost 8lbs again. She is a great eater and sleeper(knock on wood!!).
Last Tuesday, at amazing newborns, we took some pictures with Brennan and James. James is my friend, Bobbi Kenow's, son. He was born the same day as Kate, he outweighed her by 2lbs, 6oz! Kate and James

Kate, James, and Brennan

On Sunday, Lane and I made cookies. This was the best part for Lane:

It is hard to tell in the picture, but lane had cookie dough all over his entire face and shirt. The paddle was almost completely clean when he was done. I think he had his fill, he has only ate half of a cookie since we baked them!

We spent New Year's Eve at Kory and Melissa's house. My parents were there and we were all very casual. The kids spent the evening in their pjs and I wished I had worn mine! Kory and Melissa made homemade pizza, which was excellent. The kids played and played and played! Here are a couple of pictures of Lane with Nora's dress up shoes on , playing with a doll, and talking on the phone. All pictures to torture him with later in life!