Updates

So how's the fall going for you?
   Here for us... well, life doesn't stop, now does it? We have a 6 month-old, a 1.5 year-old, and a 3, 4,  and 5 year-old. We have started the journey of homeschooling and we LOVE every minute of it! My daughter loves being able to grow in her understanding at her pace, which I discovered quickly is much faster than anything the kindergarten programs out there! T-man and Monkey love doing homeschool preschool, and my littles, well they enjoy playing with a box full of toys for class time. Balancing life has been quite the adventure as we work hard to maintain sanity of home life, work lives, volunteering and helping our parish, plus two awesome Catholic homeschool co-ops in the area. Life never settles by the waysides in our house. But what can I say, we will enjoy the memories of summer and think about them especially as it gets cooler and colder here in MN!

Our Fifth

Our Lady Bug

 

              So this is the tale about our fifth and perfect little girl. On April 16th at 7 a.m. my hubby and I packed the car and drove to our local Catholic hospital for our inevitable inducement, five kids, five inducements, and I wasn't worried a second.

           Now this pregnancy had been a tough one; one with lots of sickness throughout the pregnancy and a TON of sickness the last month where I was not able to gain weight but our little lady bug was growing strong. On the day of her birth, we went in and after four labors and deliveries, they had finally  finished the AMAZING birthing wing! In fact, when we were admitted, they took us to the farthest room down the hall (all the better to walk with contractions with my dear)... and the doors opened and our eyes gazed on the most beautiful single suite ever!! It was the model room for the entire wing! Our eyes were viewing the Mississippi River, we even say eagles flying in the distance. They hooked me up and there they were, tiny contractions; just like my body to kick in after it knows it's about to be stuck by a needle (I LOATHE needles).

            After being hooked up to the monitor, some great labor-inducing meds, I asked if I could push the labor on with some squats, pregnancy yoga ball, and some walking with squats for the first couple of hours. Super Hubby and I were loving it! Happy with our wonderful room, ready to hold our little girl, nurses, and families in the hall could not believe I was having contractions... which is always a good sign that it was still early labor. I was able to talk to my nurses about how they should not bring any epidurals or medications in my room, unless they would like to have it pushed into their spines; thankfully I had some incredible nurses who liked my version of humor.

             Hubby took a nap for a few hours as I rolled around with the ball, and practiced tribal squats I had googled for pregnancies throughout the world. It was going great, my doctor came in at noon, broke the water, and she went to hang out in the doctors lounge. You see, my labors start by inducement and by the time I hit 4.5 cms well it only takes a few hours if that to push out a little blessing.

              Doc did not want to miss this one; she and I joked about how if she left the building that was the time that I'd have an all natural birth. Funny enough had she left, it could have been possible. When the water was broke, Super Hubby and I were tweeting and facebooking all our joys of how I told the world that we would be holding our baby by 3 p.m. that afternoon. That was my guess anyway. At 1:30, they checked me and I was at about 4 cm, with growing strength of contractions. I decided that it was time for more squats since the poor baby was not coming down fast enjoy still at -2, so she was pretty high up there. So I grabbed the edge of the bathroom sink sill squatted low and allowed gravity to help and then heard a slight pop, BOOM, her head moved into its proper position! Go time!!

                      A few rollings on the ball, I was quite literally singing a song about how I love Pitocin (my nurses joked how I should make a labor video since I was quite happy and content without any pain meds)... then I said how it'd be nice to go in the AMAZING jets bath... sadly I never got there, because as I squatted to the bathroom, I thought a potty break would be good. Two contractions in, I very calmly asked Super Hubby to get the nurse and doctor, I needed to be checked immediately. No one went to quickly since I was still in a great mood, I didn't hit "the wall" the one where everyone knows you're in active labor... well I then said, yes it was time so unless they wanted me to catch my baby they better hurry up. Doc came in the room, boom checked me and YES we were at 9.5 c.m. One contraction and BAM 10!!! Go time! My little lady bug was out in 1.5 push, contractions were 7 minutes apart which meant I pushed fast and she came! It was the coolest birth I've had yet!! Knowing what your body can do and allowing God to calm my heart was so amazing to be able to just enjoy this labor and delivery. And hey she was born at 3:36 pm at 7 pounds 8 ounces and a beautiful 19 inches long. Blue eyes, full brown hair... adorable simply adorable!  

              

   

 

                                      Lady Bug, Bear and me

                                    Lady Bug 2 hours after birth!

so it's been a while

YES we are alive!! Ok, so life has been pretty crazy and hectic and honestly I wasn't even sure if anyone would notice my drop-off from the blogosphere... but I thank you my dear friends and readers who have sent me emails, messages, or just called and said "write more about your beautiful and crazy tribe" And honestly, I really appreciated it because your encouragement or prayers sparked my desire to share our family's life again. So thank you! I wasn't really sure where to go with it... until today.

Why? Well at this moment, I have three sleeping boys and an almost sleeping daughter, so I clicked some links and found this INCREDIBLE short video about adoption. As many of you might know, or maybe you don't know, SuperHubby and I are truly open to God's love through having a large family. And while we are constantly growing with our tribe, lots of news to follow, we also look at how God can multiply our love through other outlets like family volunteering, quality time with each child, and hey even the possibility of adoption :)


So without any further anticipation, I encourage you to watch this short video and then spread it to the world!!! Facebook it, tweet it, email your family and friends, everything you can to share this awesome family's video.

Since i don't know how to use this new blog set up stuff... go here I promise it's not some weird site. it's so incredible.. and once SuperHubby comes home, maybe I can get him to fix this :)

Happy Advent!!

The Babu Adventures

Our children's countdown began back in May as they awaited the arrival of their Babu. Months turned into weeks, and weeks then turned into days. Let's just say it was the PERFECT learning tool to teach my toddlers how to count. And in early September, the excitement could be felt in the air as my daughter could count on one hand how many days until her Babu would be at our house. Then the final day was upon us, the kids woke up, quickly ate their breakfast, and waited...and waited and waited... Bumblebee had gotten her little brother, T-man, to even take watch at the front window. And then it was time to go and pick up Babu! The kids were giddy with enthusiasm as we loaded into the mini van and started our adventure towards the airport.

Once we arrived at the airport, we had the adventure of parking and the riding on the tram towards the baggage claim area. The kids waited so patiently to find Babu in the crowd, then the people parted and we saw her! Babu!!!!

It was great and fun week with my loving grandmother. We kept her busy with Youth Board meetings, a pro-life organization meeting, fun family adventures and even a trip to the Mall of America aquarium! It was a lot of fun and we thank her for coming and visiting us!

The Mall of America aquarium was renovated and it was MARVELOUS! Note Bella is showing Babu how to swim like her jellyfish friends :)

T-man loved sharing seats with Babu during meal times!

The kids worked their chalk magic with Babu too!

All the kids getting ready for another adventure with Babu!

Summer Time Fun

Over the past few months, our little household had many exciting adventures. Celebrating our toddlers birthdays, watching the curiousity and growth of our youngest son, dancing around in bedrooms, having family visit us, a mini vacation to visit family, plus the exciting news of a new blessing of a baby (due on Easter of 2012), it has been a crazy summer to say the least.
I must have been crazy for dreaming of a nice, calm and relaxing summer with three children under 3 years-old. However, the blessings of this summer included watching Bumblebee and T-man grow in their sibling-friendship, and then seeing them include their little Monkey brother in all the fun. As B says on a daily basis, "Mommy, I love my best friends!" It's such a wonderful thing to witness, to be able to watch siblings share and give each other hugs on a daily basis.
But as much fun as I got to view under my roof, I will try my hardest to post photos and stories up that happened these past few months! So have fun reading on!!

Back from a loooong drought

We have been a busy bunch in the past few months. Having time to type at all has not been on the front burner... we've had two wonderful C.R.H.P. retreats, two confirmation retreats with over 100 youth, a mother-daughter fashion show, and a father-daughter dignity ball to put on for our parish as well! Plus there was Ash Wednesday, Lent, Easter packed in there too! It has been a busy few months!

But now we are in the full swing of Spring and Easter timies! Finally seeing green grass, hearing birps chirping, feeling the warm sun, it finally feels like spring in Minnesota! We can play soccer, basketball, attempt to grow gardens too!

Between these months, we have had constantly growing toddlers, and a baby who wishes he was big enough to play with his big brother and big sister. I'm trying to enjoy every second with these little faces as I watch them grow before my eyes! I can't believe my two and a half year old is speaking sentences, singing songs, and being a good little leader for her brothers to follow. Meanwhile, there's a wonderful little one and a half year old who is running around, dancing in little circles, and singing his heart out! I can't believe how incredibly blessed we are to have three healthy, beautiful children. Well now that it's setttled down on our home front, I can pick back up on the tales of the busy Catholic home!

Crazy-ness

Crazy-ness has ensued in my life the past few weeks, between preparing for the CRHP retreat in Feb., the National March for Life for the archdiocese this past week, two confirmation retreats in March, then a so I apologize for the lack of blog entries.... so I'll try to catch up in life....


BumbleBee:
*The picture to the right is of my little curious daughter; recently, she was able to grab a couple of chocolate chips while Mommy was changing Monkey's diaper... the evidence was all her over face. I couldn't help but laugh...

* She LOVES to color and work on some great crafts... but more on that later...












T-man/Tiger:
* He wears his sunglasses every where... mad scientist or super hero hiding his identity? Not sure...
* Recently this little man has sprouted up 3 new teeth and has become very vocal about his life, which is wonderful!
* Tiger LOVES to run around the house and burning energy with dancing from Veggie Tale songs.

My Monkey

* At 3 months old already, his wonderful personality lights up the room!

* He LOVES to smile, giggle, and now blow bubbles with his cute little mouth

* This little man also really enjoys trying to hold himself up in a standing position while Mommy or Daddy holds his sides... can you believe he's already trying to be a little man??

* His tummy time is going great, he loves to roll onto his back when on his tummy, with little smiles after this big accomplishment!

Da Babes

My three little ones... love it!

Monkey: oh my little dimples
T-man and his big boy cup!

She's really into coloring, I mean, designing :)

Updates

It's been too long! Can you tell we're ever so busy in our home with three tots under two and a half years old? It's been marvelous though! I've even left the house with all three kiddos for doctors appointments, grocery shopping, and even work! Our little Monkey even went to a 4 hour work meeting with me for the March for Life! It was possibly the best meeting I've ever attended... there were three babies around the table in addition to my own! YAY Life! Well here's some pics to keep you comin' back for more!

T-man LOVES pointing! And please note the tuff of hair that never seems to stay down
Bumblebee got a new winter coat! She LOVES it!
and even gets upset when we try to pull it off her

My Little Monkey is now 1 month-old! I can't believe it!

A Labor of Love...and Songs

It all started a week before M was born. My body had been working hard the week beforehand with a minute long contraction every 5 to 7 minutes...but sadly my son did not want to come out of his mommy's safe womb (I don't blame him, I bet it is pretty comfy). So a week before the due date, my doctor and I sat down and had the dreaded conversation about when I should be induced. We determined it'd need to be soon since my body was in early labor and was constantly straining itself (without any effects like dilating enough, the pain but no gain type of thing).

After that conversation, I was DETERMINED to have an all naturally-hormones-induced labor. I WOULD have this baby! And so we went on walks, and walks, and walks, I had primrose oils, spicy foods, baths, exercises, more walks, and oh yes more walks (we walked 20 miles that week alone, I am not exaggerating!). But NO results! I was stuck in limbo as my body did not want to dilate enough for Malachi to come out.



So Wednesday, October 13th, afternoon, Super Hubby and I were instructed to go to the hospital to start the cervi-gel (sp?). When we arrived we went through all the customary procedures, the hook ups to the monitors, and answering the birth plan questions, and more monitoring. My nurse was great and friendly, and then the awful words of "Well, it looks like your body is ready and kickin' into gear! You're having a contraction every 4 minutes, did you know that?" The nurse: "Well you see, that's a problem; if you're contracting this much, we really can't put the cervi-gel in there. There's not much we can do with it. Unless you can get your body to stop contracting so much, I'm not sure we can do much today. I'll go call your doctor and find out his plan."



WHAT?!?! I had been telling my body to go into labor for weeks now and right NOW they tell me to tell it to stop contracting? I think not. I was fine with starting on Thursday morning, but I wanted out of that hospital bed. Well the nurse came back and told me I had the option to spend the night and be monitored all night OR go home and rest and come back bright and early the next morning. Home it was! I was more than happy to go home and "sleep" in my bed for one last night before my little guy came out.



The next morning, we went in, went through the hoops of procedure, and I got hooked in with some awesome Pitocin! Now to quickly outline the day...



7 a.m.: Pitocin started; 2 cm dilated-still early labor and early labor contractions (let's call them Intensity Status I.S. for short aka pain from 1 to 10)

9 a.m.: Start the walking around the halls, lunge-ing around - still 2 cm, I.S.: 3, every 20 minutes I have to get hooked into the monitor and checked on

1 p.m.: Warm baths, monitored, checked at 4 cm woohoo! progress! During this time, I have decided for this labor and delivery instead of screaming (like with B) OR attempting to say Hail Mary's (like with T), I will sing songs as loud as possible and make up the verses! Brilliant! Resident dr comes in and "tries her best" at breaking my water, epic failure! She does not succeed at all. I.S.: 4

3 p.m.: Warm bath, monitored, checked still at 4 cm and still hitting a I.S. of 4.5/5. Found the song I would change each verse to: Sweet Caroline would then become Sweet M! Perfect!

5 p.m.: Warm bath, monitored, check at 5 cm; need to progress so I went and did squats and lunges in the hallway between each contraction... I.S. 5/5.5

6 p.m.: Dr comes, breaks water; 6 cm, 100% effaced BUT he was at +2 (aka he's waaaaaay up there and NOT wanting to come down. I.S.: 6.5; I needed to get this going so I forced myself to walk around the halls, singing, lunge-ing, and squatting between hard contractions...

7 p.m.: No change! Nothing! Warm Bath.... nothing... stay in warm bath and SING like crazy to "Sweet M"- I will say these were some of the BEST verses because I would concentrate so hard on thinking of good words instead of thinking of the intense contractions. I.S.: 7

10:10ish p.m.: I call Super Hubby to come and listen to my fun song (haha believe me, he could hear it just fine by the time I called him in...) I.S.: 8.5ish

10:25ish p.m.: I tell Super Hubby to get the nurse; he'll have to use his super strength to pull me outta this tub because I'm gonna have this baby (please note I have no idea if my body has changed from a 7 cm or not...but I knew something was happening!

10:30ish p.m.: Dr. comes in; checks.... (waits with dramatic pause...) 9.5 cm! I tell him I need to push so he better get ready to play some catch! Dr tells me to wait to 10 cm so M can come out easily... I SING like no one's business! Oh and my new prayer I created in the tub: "Hail Mary, full of grace, Help me push him into space!" It's a winner and Mary totally helps during this part!

10:45ish p.m.: checked again; 10 cm! Time to gear up! I tell my body I have 5 pushes to go and then I'll see my baby... BUT

11:03 p.m.: it only took 3 pushes! There he was in all his glory! M was the cutest baby, perfect to everyone in the room... Best part of everything was: no problems. All natural labor/deliver, no drugs, no problems :)

After that Super Hubby and I were marveled at how beautiful this little guy is. I mean he is gorgeous and perfect! Here are some pics!

Baby M: 8 pounds 2 ounces

19 1/2 inches long

Wonderful!

Mommy with M right after birth

Grandma Patti came to help with the delivery;

she was the BEST Doula ever! She always made sure I would breathe

through contractions (I tend to hold my breath to push, yikes!)

Great-Grandma Ellie sent BEAUTIFUL flowers

(and a little Monkey too!)

Great Witness to the Catholic Faithful Family

So this morning, BumbleBee, T-man and I went to our local grocery store to pick up some great cake mixes, frosting, and blue dye for creating our master piece birthday cakes... please observe the following conversation between the two check out ladies and Bella with myself translating.

Lady 1 talking to Bella: "Wow, it looks like someone is having quite the birthday party! Are these cakes for your brother?"

Bella: frowns, shakes her head no. Looks at me puzzled

Lady 2: "Oh! They must be for you (points to Bella)! Is it your birthday?"

Bella: "No!" frowns again

Lady 2: "So it's for your Daddy or maybe Mommy?"

Bella: *no exaggeration on this, points to the sky*

Lady 1 looking puzzled: "Who are the cakes for then?"

Bella looks at me as I smile.

Me: "Tomorrow is our Mother Mary's birthday ladies. That's Jesus' Mommy, right Bella? (Bella points to the heavens in excitement!) We are making two cakes to bring to our parishes so that they may pass out pieces to parishoners to teach them how special her birthday is. Right, hunny?"

Bella nods in agreement and hugs her puppy.

Lady 2: "Well Mary is very lucky to have you celebrate her birthday and teach us about her special day then!" Smiles



What a wonderful witness! Bella, T-man and I left the grocery store very happy and excited to teach others about how wonderful Mary is in our lives. So, how are YOU celebrating Mary's birthday?

For more information on why it's such a special day, please go here for a good educational piece on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary... and remember to do something special for our Lady!

A Very Veggie Birthday Party

**Disclaimer: since I turned my camera over to friends, these pics are wonderful...but sadly not done by me. I was having too much fun with the babies, I mean, toddlers :)

Alright, so two weekends ago, we had some 26 people come to the house to celebrate T and B's birthdays! With a now official 1 year old and a 2 year-old, it has been mighty busy, so I apologize for not updating sooner! At the birthday party, we had friends and family come and celebrate the toddlers birthday with a Veggie Tale twist! We played games like "Guess that Veggie!", "Madame Blueberry Hunt", and my favorite "Oh Where is Larry's Hairbrush?" It was a lot of fun getting to see the family kids looking everywhere for the small hairbrush that was hidden in a low tree... it also gave us the perfect reason NOT to cut our grass!

As you can see, there were lots of people. Thankfully we have a great deck that can hold everyone and everything for the party!

T-man on his bday! He LOVED being center of attention!

BumbleBee blowing out her candles (ok so the wind actually blew out the candles, but B LOVED her muffin peas!

Since Super Hubby does NOT allow the toddlers to consume sugar, we made mini blueberry "Pea" family muffins! Babu did a great job making them green, and way to go Auntie Kodet for getting the pea faces!

For the bigger kids and adults, Super Hubby made two great cheesecakes! This one was Larry- oreo cheesecake

and then there was Bob the cherry-caramel cheesecake! He did a phenomenal job decorating their faces too!

Altogether, a GREAT birthday party and LOTS of amazingly sweet and thoughtful gifts! Right before the toddlers had their meltdowns for nap time, we were even able to squeeze a family/friend blessing and prayer over them so that they can have a happy and safe upcoming year with Christ!!

So if you're ever looking for a certain Veggie Tale DVD, just hollar... we might have it in our new V.T. DVD library! Thank you all who came and everyone's prayers for the toddler's upcoming year's worth of adventures!

A Conversation with my almost 2 year-old

She's at the brink of being 2...

"One day, you're going to be all big and grown up, BumbleBee. Can you just stay my tiny baby forever?"

Bumble Bee: smiles, shakes her head furiously and then says, "No Mommy!" giggles and runs away :)

It brings me to tears thinking that this little princess will one day be all grown up! So until then, I'll love every minute with her :)

She loves to shop... and she shops hard! This one was at the Target in the Mall, I had to then proceed to walk thru the mall with her completely passed out sleeping on my shoulder as I pushed T in his stroller. Gotta love it!

A Wedding Weekend

Last weekend we traveled out to Fargo to celebrate our sister's much anticipated wedding! This wedding has been in the planning for a while now and we were just super excited for Kensie and Winston to be in holy matrimony through the eyes of the Church! It was quite the morning, with bridesmaids getting up as early as 3 a.m. to start on hair designs to the great reception that lasted until 10:30 p.m.

For our little and growing family, the morning started at 4:30 a.m. when our darling babies woke up with teething pains. Bumblebee was in such pain that she was granted the gift of sleeping with Mommy and Daddy (a HUGE no-no since she LOVES to kick while sleeping :) and little T clung onto Mommy for a solid hour as I rocked him back to sleep only to startle him when lying him back to bed... just my luck I suppose. After falling back to sleep, Mommy had to wake up to get to the bride's parents house to get my hair done. It was quite the process, since it was to one side with a braid and a bun-like effect, I think it took some 50 pins to keep it up! And then when I got home to help P with the kiddos our little boy thought it'd be fun to pull Mommy's hair in one swoop! Thankfully Cousin Liz was able to fix it pretty nicely before pictures!

When we arrived at the church, we were able to get ready with both sets of bridal parties, and then the pictures started! BumbleBee loved her dress, and felt like a princess until the dreaded shoes were forced on her... she loves picking her shoes, but doesn't like wearing them for prolonged periods of time.

All in all the kiddos were good, both fell asleep in the car to the reception hall...so we let the rest a little before waking them up for the party, where BumbleBee danced the night away, well at least until bedtime at 9 p.m. where T the Tiger had great fun with Great-Grandma Ellie and Great-Grandpa Ed as he scurried around the place.

Here are some cute pics!

Bumble Bee in her "Belle" dress... she LOVED the flowers in her hair, but she kept wanting to smell them as well!

T with his smirky smile! This is his mischievous smile! He's ready for a party!

BumbleBee having fun lining up shoes!


The three piece suit was lent to us by Missy, who was so sweet enough to watch our pup over the weekend with her family back in Monti. T LOVED his outfit!!

THE face... this is the face of "Daddy, I'm tired, I'm ready to rock and roll and be the bestest little Bumblebee all day!"

Cheaper by the Dozen

"What movie should we watch, Landon?" I asked my 7 year-old brother-in-law after I put my two tikes to nap. As he inspected our small DVD collection, his hands snatched up a personal favorite, Cheaper By the Dozen. I love this movie! Not only does it have solid acting (ok other than Hillary Duff), but it encourages large family values (and I think they are semi-Catholic from one of the comments about looking at picture of grandma and praying a rosary...altho I DO note that they are not following Catholic values since Tom gets a vascestomny...I digress)! I happily agreed to watching the family flick and Landon seemed content, even though he "wishes our house had more movies".

Why do I bring this insignificant instance up on my blog? WELL, a few reasons: 1. I LOVE this movie! So if you haven't seen it in a while, or ever, and live close by, just let me know and I will gladly loan it to you to watch with a big bowl of popcorn. 2. I think this movie embodies a LOT of my thoughts when it comes to having a large family... I mean when people ask us how many kids we want, our first reaction is "As many as God blesses us with..." followed immediately with "But I would LOVE to have at least 12; two basketball teams with some subs! And hopefully, we can help fill in some slots for the priesthood shortage :)"

And lastly 3. This weekend kicks off the National Natural Family Planning Awareness Week! YAY! If you haven't ever really sunk your teeth in the Church's teachings on NFP, this week is a perfect invitation to do so, whether you are single or married. This past weekend, Super Hubby gifted me with a brand new book to read, it's called " Life-Giving Love: Embracing God's Beautiful Design for Marriage" written by Kimberly Hahn (yes, Scott Hahn's wife!). I'm only 40 pages in and ALREADY I am so amazed!! I would suggest EVERY woman, regardless of age, to read it! Kimberly's approach is an easy-read as well as enjoyable since it brings basic language to Church's teachings which can be hard to swallow at times.

"Sometimes people approach others in a blunt way: 'Here's the Church's teaching. Tough it out. Others did!' This approach makes us feel bound in chains from which there is no escape. That is not the way of truth spoken in love. Rather than binding us, truth liberates us to be all we were created to be. That is why Jesus said, 'You will know the truth and the truth will make you free!' (Jn. 8:32)" - Kimberly states in her introduction... SO TRUE!

But this upcoming week, there will be many reflections on how amazing NFP is as a gift to us as Catholics, married couples, parents, everyone basically. So strap in and get ready for some awesomeness!

A (little over) Week with Great Grandma Ellie

So now that I have my internet back, I feel like there is so much to catch up on! First, would be to go back to pre-house move-in day! I was thoroughly swamped with things to do; between painting, scrubbing cabinets, vaccumming, tearing out laminate (which by the dirt on it, it was more like plastered mud on the fake tiles), and overall packing boxes, there was no way I could do these things with two babies on hips.

Thankfully, we are blessed with an amazing Great-Grandmother ( *disclaimer: we are actually blessed with two AMAZING Great Grandmothers, but this one is focused on G.G. Ellie). G.G. Ellie was willing to drive down 8 hours to come and help me for a little over a week with the babies and packing stuff in our apartment. And let me tell you, without her, I'm pretty sure we'd still be in that cramped apartment...

Super Hubby and I were able to work long hours during the night to get this house all cleaned up and ready. Meanwhile, G.G. Ellie surprised us with an amazing gift: an oven/stovetop! This is a HUGE blessing, because we were going to fanagle without one for a few weeks until after our sister's wedding in mid-July.

The babies LOVE spending time with "Elwie", as B can't really say her "L's" yet. And I think T loved each feeding time with G.G. Ellie because he would get to eat all these great little meals that she had brought for the kiddos! It was so cute to see them with her each morning, just cuddling, or trying to climb on her...

Thank you so much Great-Grandma Ellie for the great week, and all the special times and gifts for our home! We love you and we hope to see you back really soon!

Baby Video!!

Now... it's the 21 week mark in this pregnancy...wanna see what Baby Blessing does in the womb? Well here ya go... we found out the sex,but we want to personally tell some family members before the world knows.... sorry ;)

The "Twins"

Bumble Bee got into the fun jewelry box! She LOVES bracelets that clink like the silver ones!

Bumble Bee waiting for Daddy to come home. She waited for 2 hours that day... thankfully, the ottoman was plenty fun for her!

Isn't he SUPER cute?? T-man just gets bigger and bigger! He's 21 pounds and 9 months-old on the day this pic was shot!

They might not be twins, but they are super cute together!

WE LOVE YOU MOMMY AND DADDY!

Funny Times

Need to smile? Well here's some of the cute things the babies have been up to this past week....

1. As I come out the bathroom, I see my T-man sitting and unplugging Daddy's cell phone charger out of wall... Bumble Bee runs up to him, plugs back the charger, shaking her finger furiously at the sweet 8 month-old, saying "NO, T, NO!!!"

2. T-man's new "game" is going to Daddy's stereo equipment and turning all the knobs or smashing his little fingers into the buttons. Bumble Bee understands this is a no-no. So one day, while Mommy is cleaning up fun messes left all around the home, I hear, "No, T, No! MOMMMY (in high pitch squeal), T Trouubbbble!" Oh my precious daughter, she is quite the older sister.

3. This morning, Mommy was feeling sick, so Daddy spent the morning taking care of her...Daddy checks on Mommy in the bedroom, leaving the Bumble Bee to her own demise... Mommy: "Hunny, what's B doing?"

Daddy: "Oh, she's fine, she's playing nicely in the other room..."

Mommy: "It's too quiet."

Bumble Bee enters room, running, and smiling ear-to-ear...

Mommy: "What did she do?"

Daddy: "Nothing. She's fine. She just loves you. And she's drawing on a pad of paper, no worries"

Mommy: "No when she runs to you, she knows she did something.... that means trouble"

-A few minutes later-

Mommy: "My daughter is GREEN!"

Daddy: "That's her being creative. She knew she wasn't suppose to draw on the walls or the floor, only paper and apparently, herself. I say she's a good girl."

Bumble Bee smiles uncontrollably.

4. Happily jumping in his jumperoo bouncer, T-man makes a HUGE Poopies (I mean EPIC poopies: up back to his neck, down to his toes and only in a onesie)... Mommy schrieks in high pitch due to the digustingness of it... Mommy rushes to grab paper towels to start to clean up (more worry , realizes she needs to tend to T-man first, then pulls T-man out of jumperoo to go and hose him off in the tub and put new clothing on him (leaving the mess-o-poo to be cleaned up when Mommy returns). While playing in her kitchen, Bumblee sees all of this, and stays put until Mommy leaves the room.

Mommy and T-man return to the poop zone, where we see that Bumble Bee went straight to 'work' trying to scrub the poo out of the carpet... Sadly, this 20 month-old tried so hard that she tore the paper towel, thus scrubbing her hands and feet into the poop, looking up at Mommy almost to say "surprise" with her cute smile.

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry at the site, Mommy grabs Bumble Bee to start cleaning her down. This time, however, puts T-man in his crib to play in for a while, so this cycle does not continue.

Did it put a smile on your face? Good, mine too!

God bless

Marvelous Mother's Day

Super Hubby is quite the amazing fella... if I do say so myself... this Mother's Day weekend, he pulled all the stops...that's right Mother's Day Weekend... Super Hubby knew I was having a tough week with being hormonally-emotionally driven, so he thought giving me a weekend of being ultra-love would help cheer me up. Starting Friday afternoon, he drove up to the apartment, ran up the stairs, and said, "Get ready! We're going on an adventure!"

With much anticipation, we packed the kids up, got in the car, and drove all the way to the Mall of America, where he said we had two stops. The first was to a bookstore where he surprised me with a copy of Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. I was in AWE that he had remembered this book and that we were getting a book almost as big as my Bible (no joke, it's about 700 legit pages). After that he super surprised me with a treat to dinner at Rainforest Cafe, where we split a yummy meal and watched as our T-man who couldn't blink with all the exciting animals in the restaurant...meanwhile our Bumble Bee's eyes were transfixed on the gorillas above our heads. It was mucho fun! And the kids fell asleep on the ride home which was perfect for us!

Saturday, Super Hubby gifted me with the AMAZING time of sleeping in (which is a HUGE gift for anyone who wakes up with a 9 month-old who thinks 6:30 a.m. starts his play day)... So after sleeping in, we went on another adventure to pick up my bridesmaid dress at David's Bridal, purchase shoes for another wedding, and went to lunch at Five Guys... then Super Hubby had a super special surprise... he brought me to a pet store (that doesn't sell animals), where we met up with a friend who was looking to give away her dog... after playing with the pooch for a few hours in the grass with the babies, Super Hubby surprised me with saying that this was OUR dog!!

Now why was this so surprising? Well with our big MOVE in two weeks into our first home, a new baby on the way, AND countless other projects (not to mention our apartment doesn't allow pets), I was completed blown away!! Super Hubby had talked with our loving parents, who were up for helping us watch Kolbe (we named him after St. Maximillian Kolbe), while we move into our new home!!

So who is this new member of our small-but-quickly-growing family? Well, Kolbe is a rescued 3 year-old beagle-retreiver mix. As the picture shows, he's quite a cutie who doesn't bark, bite, nip, jump, or whimper, so we are past the puppy stage! He is crate-trained, house-broken, and baby/kid friendly!! He is about 18 pounds, has all up-to-date shots (I have the vet records to prove it) and is fully grown (when he sits on his rump, his head only goes to my knee)! He is AMAZING with both Bumble Bee and T-man and is very calm and great indoors, and also has the energy when he is on his leash to go for many walks! Super Hubby says the best trait is that Kolbe cannot have babies thanks to a previous vet visit! I am so excited for the moving process so our little Kolbe can have a fun backyard to play in!!

After getting Kolbe all his needs (food, a toy, a new crate), we ran home to get gather our stuff so we could go straight to Fargo to show and share our new family member with the rest of the family! A HUGE thanks to my in-laws who are helping us out the next few weeks as we transition into our new home!!

Once we got to Fargo, we spent the night at the in-laws; and in the morning, Super Hubby let me sleep in for another morning! Not only was it amazing, but he also made breakfast for everyone in the family this morning!! It was fantastic and I have some work do to for Father's Day now!!

God Bless!