June 2011

With June comes the beginning of our summer break from school, the girls take a summer break from daycare, and a lot of fun family time begins. We love our summers!

Mckenna is often all goof, as you can see here. Her hair was long, so Matt styled it up for fun. She wanted to wear this disney pj top dress, and she was carrying this little princess magnet around the house with her. She stuck the magnet in her (closed) eye, and announced, "Arrgghh, I a pirate!" Photo op! :)

This was one of Calla's last times in her baby swing... you can see her feet starting to hang off the end, she was getting too big for it.  We loved the swing while it lasted through our two babies, but it was time to be done using it.  Coincidentally, the motor on the swing conked out a few days after we stopped using it, so the timing worked out well.  Thanks, awesome baby swing, we got a lot of good use out of you over the years!

June 15th - my birthday!  I'm not a huge birthday party person, but I do like to go out for dinner to celebrate.  We ended up going to one of our favorite places to eat near our house, Bonfire Grill.

Mckenna was digging my birthday dessert!  I think she ended up eating quite a bit of it by herself.  We don't have a lot of sweets at home, so I think she takes full advantage of the yummy treats at special occasions.

Haircut time!  We bring Mckenna to Kids Hair in Savage, and she always enjoys it.  Probably because they have a Dora episode playing on a little TV right in front of her and when she's done she gets to pick a sticker and a tootsie pop.

All done! It looks like she might be trying to smile at the stylist, looking out of the corner of her eye, but no, she's really looking at Dora on the TV to her side.  :)

June brings more senior grad parties, and Mckenna and Calla are good party-goers.  This party was for another one of my advisor girls, and she had flower balloon bouquets for some of the decorations.  Needless to say, Mckenna was loving the balloons!  The bouquets were very cute - great idea!

Congratulations, Rachel!  Every party we went to, Mckenna seemed very enthralled with the "big kids" - it was very sweet to watch.  Rachel is now a Golden Gopher at the U of MN.  So proud of her!

Another June day, another grad party!  This time we stayed near our house and went to Mckenna and Calla's "second home" in Savage... daycare!  Sally and Lane's oldest daughter Katie graduated from Prior Lake High School, and now is a student at UW River Falls.  Unfortunately we didn't get any good pictures of Katie that afternoon, but of course we got a few of Mckenna enjoying more sweets. 

During the few weeks of grad parties, she was in cake heaven!  :)  Being teachers, we get more grad party invites than we can actually attend, but we knew we would for sure be going to Katie's party.  This family means so much to us, and we were happy to be there to celebrate with them.

Ok, these next few pictures may be some of my all time favorites - just so, so cute!  They capture a day in the life at our house pretty well.  Mckenna got a little doctor kit, and absolutely loves to play with it.  It has all the doctor staples you can think of... stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, syringe/shot, arm cuff band aid, etc.  Either Calla, Mommy, or Daddy get to play the patient - Calla usually "wins" the job and she's a very cute patient at that!  Here Mckenna is checking her ears... and Calla is trying to hold still, per the doctor's request.

Checking Calla's heartbeat... Mckenna's playing the role of serious doctor, and Calla's the fun- loving patient. :)

All done with her check-up, and she has the arm cuff band aid on to prove it!  If you have young kids that like to roll play, I highly recommend a doctors kit toy.  I found ours for a steal at a toy second hand store, Once Upon a Child.  So much fun!

In the May post I mentioned that we went to visit Grandma Margie (the same day that Matt played his violin in the chapel service.)  Well, our visit actually took place in June... whoops.  Not sure how that got in the May post, but oh well.  We always enjoy seeing Grandma, and I know she really enjoys seeing the girls.  I could be off on this exact number, but I think she has around 16 great-grandchildren - isn't that amazing?  What a special thing for both her and the kids to enjoy.  Here is grandma having fun holding Calla, a.k.a., Miss Smiley.  :)

And another picture of Mckenna showing Grandma all of the treasures in her purse... she is 100% girl!

Also in June, I was fortunate to be able to get together with some of my old roomies from Bethel at our friend Ang's house in New Richmond, WI over a weekend.  It happened to be the same weekend as Savage's summer celebration called Dan Patch Days, which conveniently is held in the park that is connected to our neighborhood.  So Matt loaded the girls up in the double stroller and went to check out the activities.  I missed being with them at this fun event, but of course I had a blast with my college friends and enjoyed getting away.

Cute, fuzzy headband alert!  :)  We still have one of these headbands, Calla was just wearing it running around the house this morning.  Very cute!

Sisters playing in the crib together.  I know they're still very young, but so far they seem to enjoy being together and playing, which is nice.  Mckenna sometimes calls Calla her "little sweetie", and Calla always gravitates towards Mckenna, wherever she is, whatever she is doing.  It's fun to watch them love each other!

I think I may have posts from last summer at these same events.  Bloomington has a "summer in the parks" program devoted to kids, once a week in the mornings.  We try to go to a few of them if we're available, and this morning Matt and I took the girls to meet up with my mom, Abby, and Ayla.  This day there was a kids concert, it was fun.  My mom loves her grandkids so much, and she is so amazing with them.  I thank God all the time for her love and help - we are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Abby and Ayla... love these two!

Matt with cousins Ayla and Mckenna, watching the show.  There were a lot of kids there, so they kind of stood back and enjoyed from afar.  Mckenna really likes being with Ayla - they are only 6 months apart in age. I hope they will be good friends growing up!

The best part of the summer for me is getting to be OUTSIDE!  We love taking walks, and we have nice paths and parks around us to enjoy.  And the double stroller is really fantastic.  We bought it a few years back at a neighbors garage sale - they used is with their twins, and it is in great condition.  I'd say it has been one of our best purchases to date!

In late spring/early summer we started giving more substantial solids to Calla, branching out from the traditional baby food - more little pieces that she could pick up and eat on her own.  We gave her some puffs, and it was pretty funny to watch her with them at first.  She would look at them funny, sticking to her little fingers, wondering exactly what they were and what she was supposed to do with them...

Then she would finally get them in her mouth and half would stick out out of her lips and look like little buck teeth.  Matt and I got some really great belly laughs when this happened!  :)

Then when she realized that we were laughing so hard, she would then ham it up and try to recreate the look again with a new puff for our entertainment.  Both our girls are so goofy and fun - they love to ham it up, be silly, make others laugh, and laugh themselves!  Gotta love it!

Ok, more on the way soon from our fun July 4th weekend at the cabin in Wisconsin and from the rest of the summer too... promise!

May 2011 - busy at school, fun at the park, beautiful spring, and more...

Well, considering I've had these pictures from May loaded on the computer for months now, I suppose I could actually post them! ;)

Everyone has a busy life, many much busier than ours, but the main thing holding me up from blogging for the past several months is that Calla has been sick since the beginning of October... literally. An ER visit for croupe the first week in October, followed by more croupe, nebulizer treatments at home, multiple infections (sinuses and both ears), three rounds of different antibiotics, a semi-serious allergic reaction to the first prescribed antibiotic, major constant teething (she's gotten 8 new teeth in the past 3 months), many sleepless nights... and the list goes on. So I apologize for A) going on and on about my sick child's ailments, and B) seeming like I've dropped off the face of the earth, at least blog-wise, but C) I'm so tired and I've had little time and zero energy to focus on much else than my little family.

Some of you may know that the Bloomington campus of Minnehaha closed it's doors at the end of the 2010-2011 school year due to low enrollment and finances. We were very sad about the closing of such as amazing place, but at the same time know that life brings changes - some we don't always clearly understand or want, but have faith that God is in control and our futures hold new adventures in store that are full of positive things.

This picture is from MA Bloomington's last Fine Arts Festival (a.k.a. spring concert and art showcase), titled "New York, New York!" Matt is an amazing father, a wonderful husband, and a gifted teacher, but did you also know that he is an accomplished violinist? A man of many talents! Like every fine arts festival before it, Matt again played his violin with the musicians in the program. Mckenna and I were there, and she thought it was so cool to see her daddy up there with his awesome top hat on. The best part of the evening for me was hearing Mckenna shout out at the end of one of the songs, "Good job, Daddy!!!" :)

Here is picture I took of my business class at school one day for a program we were participating in called the Capitol Hill Challenge (a select version of the Stock Market Game.) I love teaching, I really enjoy my students, and I feel lucky to be able to do something I have a passion for.

Matt and I always chaperone prom, it's fun! It's fun to teach juniors and seniors and then get to see them outside of the classroom all dressed up.

My senior advisor group (MA's version of homeroom) - now these girls are over halfway through their freshman year in college. Time flies!

My friend Liz and I. It's nice to work with people you like so much!

Warmer spring weather means getting outside more and going to the park in our neighborhood. The girls always have a fun time here...

One morning when we were dropping the girls off at daycare, I stopped and noticed how beautiful it is where we leave our girls during the day. Who wouldn't be happy pulling up to this in the morning?

Calla at 7-months old... I think this picture captures her "squishy" baby face and big blue eyes pretty well. :)

My sweet girls!

I took Calla to a community ECFE (Early Childhood and Family Education) class called "Baby & Me" on Friday mornings. I met some great moms there, a few I keep in touch with a year later.  As you can see, Calla had a fun time at class too - lots to play with! Right now while I write this Calla is 15-months old and running around like crazy... so it's funny to see this picture of her at 7-months and know she was only scooting/crawling around and playing on her tummy. Oh how much can change in just a few short months time!

Having all senior advisors and teaching seniors, Matt, the girls, and I went to several senior grad parties. Mckenna and Calla were the life of the party everywhere we went, and we often didn't even have to worry about them at all - a group of people were always playing with and entertaining them during the various parties. A nice break for us, and fun for them too!

Memorial Day weekend at the cabin! Matt and Craig were able to get the dock put in one of the days. (Nice waders, Grandpa Craig!) :)

Grandma Karen always loves time with her granddaughters.

We were able to visit Grandma Margie in May. Although we don't see her as often as we'd like to, we always enjoy our visits with her. This day we went to the chapel service at her senior home, and Matt played his violin with Matt's Aunt Karin (one of Margie's daughters, in town to visit from Texas) on the piano. I know Grandma Margie enjoys their music so much, so it was wonderful that it worked out for them to play together that morning.

Mckenna made sure to show Grandma Margie all of her little princess dolls and her princess purse (on Grandma's lap)... very cute!

So much has happened in the past few months, including two major birthdays in October - Mckenna turned three, and three days later, Calla turned one!  Also, on Oct. 31st, we gained a new nephew!  Casey John Person was born to Abby, Dan, and big sister Ayla!  He is so sweet, and we're excited to welcome another baby to the family.  Pictures of Casey to follow in a future post. 

I know I need to catch up on this blog - I know, I know. I'm really going to try to catch up to real time over the next few months - I guess we'll all see how that plan works out! Until then... I'm going to keep telling myself "better late than never."  :)