Spent the last 2 days at Wisconsin Dells with my brothers and their amazing wives :) We don't get to hang out, just siblings, very often, so it was a good excuse to get away and do just that!! The kids loved the waterparks and we definitely ran them to exhaustion! Once they were in bed last night, we played 5 hours of The Newlywed Game, and really got to know one another better :) It was a terrific two days of vacation!
Again, my pics are out of order... but this has been my life since the end of October. I spend every day with these girls at dance and we had our first competition last Saturday. Now we have one almost every weekend until the middle of February. I love these girls!!
Our last week, in a nutshell... Brandt ran the 1/2 marathon Monster Dash last Saturday, dressed as a Ghostbuster... Our trick-or-treat crew from tonight... Brandt and I eating the kids' candy after they went to bed... Addie's dance class and Halloween party. Busy but fun week! Gotta love Halloween :)
These pics got a little out of order-- stinkin' Windows computer... Anyway, we've had a fun, fast October! Brandt and I went to Lutsen with our friends, Billy and Heidi. It was a relaxing, refreshing 3 days. We loved every minute of it :) Took the kids to the MN Zoo last week on the most beautiful day ever! They could've stared at that dolphin all day, I think. Amazing! We switched Eli over to a toddler bed this last weekend. He has made the transition perfectly (knock on wood), and actually sleeps longer now than he did in his crib. 
Here's our little princes!! She looked very healthy on the ultrasound :) Yes, that's my placenta she's 'sleeping on' in the bottom pic. Strange, but still SO COOL!! Addie looked at the pics and ran away yelling, "Gross!" We are excited to add another girl to the family. Now on to brainstorming names and painting/decorating the room. The name Addie came up with today was "Lel"--- we said no ;)
1. Women: to prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front. Leave it there for 9 months. After 9 months, take out 10% of the beans.
2. To discover how the nights will feel, walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 lbs. At 10pm put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, till 1am. Put the alarm on for 3am. As you can't get back to sleep get up at 2am and make yourself something to drink. Go to bed at 2.45am. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off. Sing songs in the dark until 4am. Put the alarm on for 5am. Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.
3. Can you stand the mess children make? To find out, smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains. Hide a fish finger behind the stereo and leave it there all summer. Stick your fingers in the flowerbeds then rub them on the clean walls. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?
4. Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems: first buy an octopus and a string bag. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this - all morning.
5. Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a pot of paint turn it into an alligator. Now take a toilet tube. Using only scotch tape and a piece of foil, turn it into a Christmas cracker. Last, take a milk container, a ping pong ball, and an empty packet of Coco Pops and make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower. Congratulations. You have just qualified for a place on the playgroup committee.
6. Forget the MX5 and buy a Barbi Cruiser. And don't think you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that. Get a quarter. Stick it in the cassette player. Take a family-size packet of chocolate cookies. Mash them down the back seats. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There. Perfect.
7. Get ready to go out. Wait outside the toilet for half an hour. Go out the front door. Come in again. Go out. Come back in. Go out again. Walk down the front path. Walk back up it. Walk down it again. Walk very slowly down the road for 5 minutes. Stop to inspect minutely every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the way. Retrace your steps. Scream that you've had as much as you can stand, until the neighbors come out and stare at you. Give up and go back into the house. You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.
8. Always repeat everything you say at least five times.
9. Go to your local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a pre-school child - a fully grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy.
10. Hollow out a melon. Make a small hole in the side. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side. Now get a bowl of soggy cereal and attempt to spoon it into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane. Continue until half the cereal is gone. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on the floor. You are now ready to feed a 12-month-old baby.
My Addie learned to ride a two-wheel bike this weekend! She just asked me on Friday if she could try it without training wheels and I told her "Sure," thinking we'd for sure be putting them within a matter of minutes. But nope! She totally got it! And by today, she was riding the entire length of our street by herself! She still needs help to start on her own and make turns, but that will come. So proud of her :) And she's really proud of herself, which is exciting to see. That was the Sorbel weekend highlight!!
Kinda corny... kinda looks like a Christmas card... but still fun :) We've built a fire a couple nights in a row now, not because it's really cold out, but because we can! Just something we love about this house. The kids LOVE watching the fire, sitting by the fire, and cuddling by the fire. So, yes, we had to get a pic in front of the fire :)
