A Good Ol' Pile of Leaves

The girls and I had a great time this afternoon playing in our huge piles of leaves. Jason was working on the raking part and we were just working on the silly playing part. Gotta love fall in Minnesota!

October Fun

Hi everyone. I know it has been a couple of weeks, so let's get an update. No marker incidents lately, no car repair needed lately....but let me share some of the funnier moments from the past weeks.

I always find it funny, yet very cool that I can now have conversations with Kate and Annika. Serious, actual conversations. Well, Annika was being a little naughty the other day and I went upstairs to have a good talk with her. I asked her why she was climbing on her bookcase after I had asked her not to....she said that Kate told her to. Ha! I thought, "Who should you listen to Annika?" "Grandma and Grandpa" she said, "Who else, Annika?" "Daddy.....and Ginger." (Our dog!) "Who else, Annika" as I am trying not to laugh out loud, "Ummmm, mommy?" Great! Now do you see what I am in for...... for the next 20 plus years. Oh dear!

Another Annika moment, we are sitting and eating dinner and Grandma Cloutier tries to trick Annika. Little Annika is telling Grandma all of the foods that she LOVES. After her extensive list, Grandma says, "and....broccoli." "I like broccoli Grandma" "You do?" "Yes I love broccoli........" Annika tilts her head and looks right at Grandma and says, "I no like broccoli!"

During the last two weeks we have been up north to Two Harbors to visit Grandma and Grandpa Cloutier at their house and see Uncle Marc and his girlfriend Tina. Then Grandma came back to Lakeville with us to watch the girls during our short MEA week. This weekend we finally went to the pumpkin patch. The girls see the pumpkin patch everyday on the way to daycare. They have been asking when we can go there for about a month. So they were very excited when we told them we finally get to go to the PUMPKIN PATCH!!! We had the whole patch to ourselves and the girls had a lot of fun trying to pick out the best pumpkin. They would walk over to a pumpkin and try to lift it and then say "So heavy!". We ended up with three cute little pumpkins and a HUGE pumpkin for daddy to carve up on Halloween.

This weekend the girls and I are home with Grandma and Grandpa and Jason is back in Westbrook for his cousin Sara's wedding. We are looking forward to Monday when Aunt Jenny is coming over to watch the girls while we are back at work after our nice long MEA weekend. Soon October will be done, I can hardly believe it. Where did 2008 go? Oh well, it just teaches you to enjoy every moment you are given......and that is what I plan to do. Enjoy your moments this weekend. God bless!

Fall has officially arrived!

The leaves are starting to show an array of color here in Lakeville- I can only imagine what the colors may look like in northern Minnesota or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I am sure it is beautiful! Last weekend I gave up on my annuals and traded them in for some gorgeous mums that now are decorating the front porch, just waiting for some pumpkins and corn stalks to join them. That will happen in a couple of weeks when Grandma and Grandpa come down for a visit. We have a pumpkin patch a mile away from our house and the girls are already talking about getting pumpkins.

The girls have been busy at preschool learning about the letters B and C as well as apples, Johnny Appleseed and a cute little stoplight song. Now everytime we stop at a stoplight Annika and Kate say, "Green means go and red means stop". Our daycare provider is expecting her second child any day now, so we have back up plans in place for watching the girls. For about a month they will be bouncing around from friend to friend- I hope that they do okay. Kati will be taking the girls back in about four weeks- not much of a maternity leave, but money is tight right now for all of us with the state of the economy, so I completely understand.

We have had a few issues these last two weeks involving pens and markers and a car battery..... Last weekend Annika found a pen that Jason had been using to do a Sudoku puzzle and colored all over Jason's leather recliner. After a quick search on Google I got it out with a little hairspray and q-tips, then Kate was playing in the truck and turned on the headlights which neither of us noticed right away and the truck battery died completely. To make matters worse, Jason left in the Honda to take the girls to the zoo and left me with the truck, which I tried to take to church. Well that didn't happen, because when I went to leave for church and the truck was dead! Thank goodness for our neighbors who drove me to church just in time to sing the first praise song with the praise team. So $100 dollars later we have a new truck battery. It gets better.....then on Thursday after school I came home to find Kate covered from head to toe in black permanent marker and Jason furiously scrubbing her all over. She had colored herself and the driver's seat in the Honda with black marker. She was covered....inside her ears, in her hair, on her legs, pants, toes- EVERYWHERE! Well.... two tubs later it is finally starting to wear off, but you can still see it a little. My car on the other hand- well...I am open to suggestions on how to remove permanent marker stains. ARGH!

We are home again this weekend, without any house guests, as most of September has been. This will change starting in October. Let me just say I will be very glad when October is over and done. Jason is running in the Twin Cities Marathon the first weekend of October. Then we are heading up to Two Harbors the second weekend to visit my parents and see Uncle Marc and his new girlfriend Tina. We are bringing Grandma back with us the week of MEA so she can watch the girls. We both have conferences that week as well as praise band. Then Grandpa is coming for MEA and we will head off to the pumpkin patch and maybe, just maybe, Jason and I will get to have a date to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. That weekend Jason is in his cousin's wedding back home and the following weekend Jason is heading to Grand Marais, MN with our church youth group for a weekend retreat while I stay home and watch the girls and play piano for praise team. UFF DA! Can you understand why I can't wait for the craziness of October to be done! And none of that even includes Halloween....which by the way thanks to our dear friends the Kostecki's for our costumes- Care Bears! The girls love them and I will take lots of pictures!!!!

Last weekend the girls started pedaling their bikes all by themselves, so I got some pictures, as well as Kate's marker experiment- HA! Have a great week everyone and enjoy the fall colors and activities. I think a bonfire is in order tonight, as long as it isn't 85 degrees out like yesterday. Oh my! Hugs from us all!

Future Soccer Stars!

With the end of another week of school, warm weather has returned. Earlier this week we had nice cool mornings and evenings, causing school to be pleasant- not the humid sticky mess of week 1. But starting on Monday the AC will be running full force and I will be wilting as temperatures reach 75-80 degrees again. I am all for beautiful weather, but the northern girl in me dreams of September days that reach a high of 60. I know it's crazy, but the good ole days of UMD in the fall are causing quite a stir of memories.

The girls had fun this week kicking around a basketball- I know it doesn't quite make sense, but they love running and kicking. So I do believe that a real, actual soccer ball is on the Christmas list from Uncle Marc. I have to brag a little....they have really do a great job smashing that ball (whichever kind it is....). The pictures show it all, good concentration, nice form. I think that they will make excellent soccer players. Of course daddy has already informed them- NO SOCCER. I think momma gets a veto vote.


This week at school the girls learned more about the letter A and have worked their way up to the number 3. Annika loves the letter A of course because her name starts with it- she can rattle off a whole list....apple, alligator, airplane. And not to forget Kate, if you thought Annika talked a lot, watch out! Kate is motor mouth #2. This morning she said something so fast, then turned pointed her finger at me and said, "Okay momma? Alright. Bye!" I still don't know what she said, just as long as she was happy.

Have a great weekend everyone- love to you all!!

First week....done!

Hi everyone. It was a crazy week, but we endured and check it off as DONE! The first week is never typically fun, more like crazy, tiresome, sometimes aggrevating, and yes sometimes there may even be a couple doses of Advil. But now that it is done, my little friends are getting into the grove and understanding how things work, where things go and how to behave in first grade.....that one is still a work in progress, ha!

The girls had a great week at daycare. They are in "preschool" now, which means that our daycare is doing a curriculum called FunShine Express. The theme this week was "Dinosaurs Go To School". They learned the number 1 this week, the letter A, made paperbag backpacks, learned The Wheels on the Bus and of course played with dinosaurs. It's really neat. They learned really cute ways to practice the number 1 and the letter A. They are so smart......

Jason is still prepping for the Twin Cities Marathon. This morning he ran a 25K on Lake Harriet and next week he is running the White Bear Lake 20 mile. He swears that this will be his last marathon- yeah right!!! On a sad note, my dad's sister Patricia passed away on Saturday from a long battle with Parkinson's and a blood infection. The funeral will take place sometime this week in the Detroit area. I will not be able to attend, but my parents are traveling there as I type this. Please keep my grandparents in your prayers- this is especially hard on them. Thanks! Enjoy the pictures from daycare this week.....I promise more to come.

Happy Birthday Linda!

On Saturday we celebrated my mother-in-law's 60th birthday. We sort of surprised her with a open house at the Westbrook city park and invited the whole town. She found out by reading the local newspaper. When she saw her baby picture she figured something was up, ha! We had cake and punch and Linda got to see a lot of her friends from town. We could tell she was having a blast! Hey you only turn 60 once, why not celebrate. We even suprised her with a dozen roses and a new grill. It was a lot of fun and good to get back to the farm one last time before school starts- tomorrow!


We even got to go out to the Horkey farm (my sister-in-law's parents). The girls each went for a pony ride and played with cute baby goats, sheep, horses and a calf. They even got to play with some "power tools".....don't worry they were plastic, of course! Tomorrow is the first day of school. I can hardly believe it! Happy September everyone!

Now that it's August.....

Hi everyone. Sorry it has been a while. We spent the last two weeks with Grandma Cloutier and we had so much fun- we forgot to post anything. First we were at the cabin on Agate Lake and then Grandma came to stay for a week while Grandpa went fishing in Canada. We had lots of little shopping trips to Target...we love those! Then Jason went to Chicago for a conference so we went back up north to Two Harbors again for a quick little vacation and got to see my Aunt Dixie from Ohio. She hadn't seen the girls since they were three months old. Needless to say, they have changed a bit! Now we are home for the rest of summer. Jason is back at work, but he is finding it hard to concentrate since it really is still summer. It doesn't help that the girls and I are home having fun. Starting this week the girls are going back to Kati's (our daycare provider) for a couple play dates. Then next week while I am testing first graders at school Grandma Bakke is coming to watch the girls for the WHOLE week. Kate and Annika will love that. We haven't seen Grandma Bakke since June...that's too long!!! Squeeze in the State Fair and another weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Cloutier then the last week of August is back to work full-time for me and back to daycare full-time for the girls. School starts on Tuesday September 2nd! We can hardly believe that another summer is almost over- yikes! Time sure flies when you are having fun! This picture is of the girls in Two Harbors over the Fourth of July- I forgot to post it earlier. Enjoy!