New Car

Last weekend Neil stayed home and watched the kids while I went to MN and visited my friend Steph and stopped in to say hi to my parents. I drove our newish car home, its a really nice. It has leather seats, a sunroof, the doors lock and unlock when they are suppose to and there isn't smoke coming from the hood after a long drive. We sold our old, new subaru and got a RED Ford Escape. I think Keenan likes it even though he wanted a orange car, but he likes his new truck.

Georgia is starting to stand on her own, she getting a little bit more brave letting go. She can also say UH-OH when she drops something on the floor which is her new favorite game at meal time. Keenan is almost saying complete sentences. He loves singing the Alphabet song, and twinkle, twinkle little star and counts everything he sees.

We are all feeling a little bit antsy to get outside. Neil and I have been on the trainers some to prepare us for our first nice spring day outside on the trails. Neil is getting ready for the cyclofrost race in acouple weeks, which is held up at the capital square.

Keenan is playing with Georgia in a box that we had laying around. She is so tough with what she has to put up with sometimes.

Georgia's Dedication & Keenan's new sport

Acouple weeks ago Georgia was dedicated at Blackhawk Church on Saturday, January 16th, she did so good. Keenan was a great big brother. Her dedicated verse was from Psalms 98: 1 - I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. It fits her well, she is a vocal girl.

We had everyone that made it to the dedication over for lunch afterward. Everything turned out great and was very delicious. When Georgia woke up from her nap we had cake and opened up her gifts.

Keenan learned a new sport, hockey. He loves it, him and Neil went to a local park near our house that has a hockey rink and found a hockey stick that was just his size. He has been talking about hockey ever since.

Neil took Keenan and Georgia on their first wagon ride of 2010, I hope we can go on more very soon.

December Pics

Sorry we haven't blogged in awhile. December is always soo busy. We started out the month redoing our floors in the kitchen and Livingroom. Neil and his Dad put in the tile while I took the kids to my parents in MN for a week.

Before:This was the old laminate flooring we had in the kitchen, very boring and plain and was starting to look very warn.

After: This is the new Tile, so warm and beautiful and has a neat pattern. It looks wonderul in the kitchen.

Before: This is the old carpet by the front door soo ugly. (this picture was taken this past spring, Keenan testing out the durability of the bouncy seat for her Sister)
After: I hated the carpet by the front door. I don't understand why people would put carpet by an outside door. So we brought the tile from the kitchen into the front door/livingroom, so we actually have an entry way.

When we got home Neil had already got the Christmas tree and Georgia is sitting on the new carpet all wrapped up with lights ready to decorate the tree.

A few days later we had a huge snow storm that dumped about 18inches of snow. The snow was up to Keenan's waist, he had so much fun playing in the snow.

Then we took our Christmas card pictures. Which out of all the pictures we took this is about the only one that everyone was looking and smiling. I will add some more pics. later from Christmas.

Keenan's Birthday

Keenan's Birthday was Wednesday the 18th he loved blowing out the Candle!

We went to the Holiday Inn to their waterpark, He had a great time.

Saturday we had birthday party with a baseball cake.

Him and his friend enjoying opening presents.

California Trip

We went to California last week to visit Neil's brother, his wife, and their new baby. My parents came down and stayed with the kids for 6 days. We left early Thursday morning for Santa Barbara. We have not been away from the kids that long so I was a little nervous.
Thursday - We got to CA around 12, got some authentic Mexican food which was amazing then Jenny and I got our toes and nails done, it was so nice to get pampered. That evening we took the scooter down to the beach and watched the sun set.

Friday - we all went to the Valley to some Vineyards, that was a lot of fun. They were so pretty and the wine was amazing.
Saturday - Neil and I went woke up early and took "scoots" out to get some coffee at one of the local coffee houses. Once Chris and Jenny got up and ready we loaded Asher in the car and went down to the Harbor. We walked through the prier and saw some HUGE boats, we walked around the park, and walked on the beach. It was beautiful! After lunch Jenny and I went to a cupcake shop in Monticeto called Whodidily, it was soo cute, it was very girly and so delicious.
Sunday - After church we went to the beach and Neil tried his luck at skim boarding. Skim boarding is like skate boarding on the sand after the wave goes out, there is a thin layer of water that you can skim across. Anyway, you run as fast as you can drop the board and jump on - think full run across a parking lot dropping a skate board and then jumping on with both feet = VERY BAD IDEA. He crashed a few times...pretty hard...but got the hang of it quick enough that Jenny and Chris were both impressed. Asher loved hanging out at the beach he is such a good baby.
Monday - The last day of our vacation, Neil and Chris went for a bike ride on the beach and on some mt.bike trails in the morning. We had decided to make a Thanksgiving meal with them that night we did all the fixings turkey, potatoes, gravy, dinner rolls, some friends of theirs brought sweet potatoes, and green beans and of course pumpkin pie. It was very good!! I'm looking forward to another Turkey dinner.
Tuesday - We left in the morning and arrived home around 7:00pm. When we got home Keenan was still up and his reaction wasn't what we were expecting. We were expecting him to scream with excitement and run to both of us for hugs and kisses, instead he said "hi" and then got his ball and wanted to play - oh well I guess boys grow up faster than we thought! Georgia had just been put to bed so I walked in her room looked over at her in her crib and said "Hi Georgia" she got this big smile and giggled it was soo cute.
The trip was a lot of fun, the kids did great at home, and my parents had a lot of fun watching and bonding with them.

HALLOWEEN

Last night we had our second annual Halloween party. We had about 12 adults and about the same kids. All the kids are about the same age so they played really good together and had a lot of fun.

Creighton definately took home the best costume award with his Land Shark.

Keenan went as a UW basket ball player - which seemed seemed appropriate.

Georgia dressed up as a Lion

Speaking of Georgia, she is crawling around like crazy! She got it figured out and now there is no stopping her, she can't keep up with Keenan yet but that doesn't keep her from trying. It is really fun watching her go from laying and rolling over to becoming mobile.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

With this past week being cold and rainy every day this weekend turned out GREAT. The sun came out at times, and it was really nice. On Saturday afternoon we loaded up and headed out to the Epplegaarden again, this time to pick pumpkins. We got a wagon and headed out to the field to find the perfect pumpkin. Keenan just couldn't get over all the pumpkins and just kept yelling "BALL - BALL" and wanted to run over to everyone and try to pick it up.

I didn't know if Georgia was going to be able to sit on the pumpkin, but Keenan was a good big brother and held her hand.
We were planning on getting family pictures shot this weekend, who would have thought that a pumpkin patch would be a great place for family fall pictures.
We loaded up the wagon and headed back to the barn to state our claim. It only took 10ft. and one good bump before one of the wagon wheels fell off. Fortunately a worker with a ATV was out in the field, we loaded the pumpkins up on him and he took them back to the barn for us. Both kids had a great time and just loved playing with the pumpkins.