Schwieger Family Blog

My babies

2011-07-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

I took this pic in my sister's front yard! They are so sweet!!

3 months in a nutshell...

2011-07-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

I am a little behind with the blog :( So I thought I would just show you some highlights of the last 3 months! Enjoy!!

MAY...
My cousin Brandon got married in June, so at the end of April, we had a shower for his bride to be, Angela... such a fun day!
On May 1, it was the 8th anniversary of Stacy's death. We do the same thing every year to remember and honor her life. We go to the cemetery and let balloons off "up to Stacy". We miss her every day!

Matthew and MeeMee cuddled up on the deck watching a movie... so sweet! Matthew will have so many great memories with his MeeMee and Papa! I love it!

At the end of May we took our first road-trip with Laney to Iowa to visit Ben's sister and her family... the fire station had an open house! Matthew loved it... he got to spray the fire hose, ride an old school fire truck, go in the ambulance and eat pancakes and sausage with his cousins! So fun!

Also at the end of May we celebrated Mom, Mary and Stacy's bdays! Here is a pic of some of the Wise girls!

A fun night out with the Bible Study girls... at our favorite restaurant Salut in St. Paul!

My baby has graduated from pre-school and will start kindergarten in the fall! this was his final program! It was so cute!!!

JUNE!!!

Let the t-ball begin!! Matthew had lots of fun playing t-ball! It was really cute! This was taken at the Opening Day ceremonies!

Brandon and Angela's wedding! Almost the entire WISE family! Just missing the bride and groom and cousin Chris! We had a blast at the wedding!

We took a trip up to Cross Lake for a mid-week get away with the Johnsons! It was so much fun! Except Laney came down with CHICKEN POX!! Here we are at Moonlight Bay after lunch! It was CHILLY!

The kiddies... having so much fun!

Here she is! Covered in the POX! The picture doesn't do it justice! But she was such a trooper! She wasn't affected by it at all! Love this girl! She is taking an "oatmeal bath"!

JULY!!!

Happy 4th! We spent the weekend with the chicken pox at the cabin! :) Isn't she CUTE!?

Justin, Matthew and Lukey "fishing" at the cabin...

Such a good baby... she is happy to just hang out! Getting some lovin' from her big brother!

My baby is crawling everywhere and climbing up on furniture and walking all over the furniture while she hangs on! It is so cute and I could just eat her!

Easter 2011

2011-04-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

Wow! Easter flew by this year! We had a great day!! On Palm Sunday, we colored eggs with the cousins... they had a great time! On Easter Sunday, the kids found their baskets that the EB left for them, which was the highlight of the day! We also went to church and had some of my dad's side over for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt! So fun! Below are some pics...

Coloring Eggs with the Wises and the Ehmkes
Matthew was sad because he found Laney's basket first and thought the EB forgot him! But with some help, he found it and was so happy! :)

Laney with her basket. My cute little bunny!

Family picture after mass, all dressed up!

My little cuties!!

The Easter egg hunt!! Matthew with all of his loot!

Florida 2011

2011-03-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

We have been home for almost a month so I figured it's time to post some pics! We had a great time while visiting my parents in Florida! This year was SOOOO different! We had amazing weather and were able to truly escape the yucky MN winter! We spent lots of time at the beach/pool and hanging out. It was a very relaxing vacation! My parents loved seeing the kids and gave Ben and I a much needed break! It was great to have some extra hands to help out!!! Below are some pics... This is the view from their balcony. This was taken in the morning after a stormy night.. the tide was really high, normally we had lots more beach! It was SO fun to dress Laney up in her "beach apparel". She was so cute!

Out to lunch at Breakers... right on the ocean!

This was taken at the pool which overlooked the beach! Such a great set-up!

Laney's first time in the outdoor pool! She loved it! The water was really warm!

Another beach outfit!

First time in the pool ever! This was at the indoor pool! Taken at about 7:30am!

Out to dinner in Ponce Inlet, watching the sunset!

I love Florida!

Matthew is 5!

2011-03-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

It makes me so sad and happy all at the same time to think that my baby boy is 5! The time has gone so fast! I am so thankful for what a good little boy he is! I am also so thankful that we truly have enjoyed who he is! I feel like we were able to develop such a great relationship, since he was an only child for 4 1/2 years before our sweet Laney joined us! I would not change that timing for the world! He is such a little "man"! He loves any sport, especially hockey, soccer, baseball and golf! And he is such a good big brother! I love him to pieces! Since Matthew could talk he has wanted to be 5! And now it is finally here! He had a great 5th birthday! We have been celebrating for a month! His first party was a joint party with Elizabeth and Connor back in Feb! Then we went to Florida and my mom had a party for him. On March 9 he really turned "real 5" as he called it! He woke up to breakfast in bed...his favorite, a breakfast burrito and hashbrown from McDonalds, then opened his presents and then off to school with cupcakes for his class! My parents ended up coming home from FL for a few days for a funeral so they were able to celebrate again with us before heading back. Went to Applebees for lunch with Michael, Mary, Kristin and my parents. And for dinner, we met Grandmas Jackie at the Bierstube for his favorite... buttered noodles!! Then that weekend we had Ben's family over to celebrate his b-day and Ben and Jordan's! It was a super fun day! And I think the celebrations have finally ended!!! WOW! Happy Birthday to my Big Boy!! :)

Breakfast in bed for the little Prince!
His new DS! So exciting!

His party with the Schwiegers!

The Birthday Boys with Charlie!

Opening more presents!

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T07:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day! We feel extra blessed this year with one more to LOVE in our family!

Last night ended with Matthew getting the stomach flu :( So sad to watch my baby so miserable! He missed his Valentine party at school, which he actually doesn't seem to upset about... so he must be sick!

To prepare for Valentine's Day on Saturday, I made cupcakes and Matthew helped decorate, which was very fun and a big mess :) This morning the kids opened their presents and we have been laying low since Matthew is not feeling so hot!

Here is sweet Laney with her very first Valentine!
She doesn't look too excited with her presents! She got a sun hat for FL and some new jammies!
Matthew made a haul... he got new matchbox cars, a t-shirt for FL, the "How to Train a Dragon" movie for the plan, a football for the pool and some Tootsie Rolls! He was THRILLED! Although you can tell in this pic that he doesn't feel so hot!

And here he is decorating the cupcakes!

And Laney really wants to help or maybe just eat one!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Toddler Tuesday!

2011-02-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

We had a super fun play date with Auntie Krissy and cousin Lukey last week! On Tuesday, the MOA has a special deal on ride tickets for little kids! Matthew and Lukey had such a great time riding the rides! And Laney had a great time watching the boys run from ride to ride! She even took a few naps during our time at the MOA!

Here are the boys on some rides...

Auntie Krissy holding Laney Lou

And an updated pics of the kiddies hanging out while I was making dinner! Matthew loves to entertain his sister and make her laugh!

Pinkalicious!!

2011-01-28T08:08:00.000-08:00

Laney was invited to her first birthday party for her friend Marlowe! Marlowe was turning 2 and had a Pinkalicious party! So we took full advantage to make sure that Laney looked Pinkalicious! I didn't bring my camera to the party, so bummed! But I got a picture of her when we got home! It was a great day and Marlowe was so sweet!

Her hat is starting to get a little small, so looks mad when she's wearing it :)

Babies!!

2011-01-14T14:07:00.001-08:00

We had a super fun playdate last week! Matthew is lucky enough to get to go to the Slapnicher's to play instead of go to daycare! :) He loves playing with Malea and Micah and their awesome mom, Melissa. When I told Melissa that I was pregnant, she told me that she was also pregnant! :) And the best part... we were both having girls! Our due dates were a week apart!! Melissa had a scheduled C-section on Monday October 4 and I was induced with Laney on Thursday October 7! Our sweet babies are destined to be best buddies! Melissa's mother in law is also one of my mom's best friends, Betsy! I have known Melissa's husband since birth! Melissa, Betsy and the kids came over for a visit with my mom and I and my kids. Below are some pics!

Matthew and I with sweet baby Amara! This was taken 3 days before Laney was born!

Malea, Matthew and Micah having some lunch! Such good buddies!
My mom, me, Laney, Melissa, Amara, Betsy and Malea! the girls!

Mommies and babies!

Grandmas and babies!

Best buddies! Laney and Amara!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that Christmas is already over! Time is going way too fast! Laney had a great first Christmas! She slept through most of it but had lots of fun with her family! :) We started out the weekend on Christmas Eve celebrating with the Wise family. We had a birthday party for Jesus, opened presents, went to church and then had dinner. Matthew of course had a blast with his cousins! He loves having them all together! Matthew's favorite gits were a pair of hockey Grandma pants and a sweet garbage truck! Laney got the 2010 American Girl doll whose name is Lanie!! She had to have it! Christmas Eve night Matthew put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. He was so excited to put his stocking out! Christmas morning started around 7:00... which was pretty impressive considering! Laney slept in so Matthew started opening presents by himself. His favorite were his Hastings Hockey sweatshirt and his Playmobil jet! He made a haul though! We went a little overboard this year but he enjoyed it and has been playing non-stop with all his toys! We finally woke Laney up and Matthew opened her presents... she got lots of clothes and a plush Cabbage Patch doll!! Christmas Day we spent with the Schwiegers. It was a super fun relaxing day! The kids played outside. It was so cold, when they came in, they all curled up with blankets and pillows and watched movies for the rest of the day, they were all tuckered out from the day before I think! They were so adorable! Later in the day, the guys brought the boys skating which was the highlight of Matthew's day! We had lots of fun preparing for Christmas this year... Matthew really got into it. The best present we got was our little Laney! Enjoy some pics! I uploaded them backwards, so we will start with Christmas Day!

Our Family! (Christmas Eve night)

Ben and Laney hanging out...

Curled up with Will watching Toy Story 3

Matthew and his sweet cousin Will! They love to skate together!Christmas Day with the Schwiegers

Christmas morning... Matthew had to wear his new hockey sweatshirt! And Laney was wearing her new outfit from the Ehmkes! SOOOOO cute!

Christmas morning... putting together all the toys! Remote control Jeep, the Jet, the train...

He asks to wear this sweatshirt EVERY day!! I can't wash it fast enough!

Christmas Eve night... getting ready for Santa! Laney just wanted to go to bed.

My mom gave her the Lanie doll! She will love it someday! For now it will stay in the box!

Matthew with his garbage truck! He loves it!

Sweet little Laney in Christmas duds!

And one more!

All the Wise cousins!

The weekend before Christmas we always get together with my dad's side of the family... this year we took a picture with all the cousins...

Matthew's Christmas Preparation

2010-12-18T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well the Christmas season is upon us and we are having lots of fun preparing for Jesus' birthday! We are really trying to instill the TRUE meaning of Christmas with Matthew this year! We have an Advent wreath with candles and Matthew loves to light the candles each night at dinner time and say an Advent prayer with me or MeeMee! He will quickly remind us if we forget to light the candles! When he does a good deed or listens to us, he gets to put hay in the manger (part of the nativity scene) in preparation for Christmas morning when Jesus will appear. My mom has the Advent calendar up from when I was a kid. Matthew loves using it to count down the days the Christmas! We also feel so lucky that Matthew attends our church's preschool and gets to learn about Christmas there too!! He had his preschool program on Friday and did such a good job! He was so proud! Below are some photos!

Matthew's school program! it was very sweet. the kids were all so cute and did a great job singing their songs!
After the program

The Advent calendar that I had growing up! Matthew puts an ornament on the tree every morning... counting down the days to Christmas!

Matthew and I decorated a gingerbread house.. this is the finished product. That kiss was completely unsolicited! he did it all on his own!

Laney is 2 months!

2010-12-09T18:36:00.001-08:00

So hard to believe that Laney is already 2 months old! The time is going way too fast! It makes me so sad!! I really want her to stay little forever! I brought her to the doctor on Tuesday and she is 10 lbs 13.5 oz and 23 1/4"!! She is just perfect! She had to get 3 shots which was so sad! She did not enjoy them!! As I am getting ready to leave the doctor, I realize that I had locked my keys in the car! UGH! I opened her door to get her out, locked the car and put the keys in my purse and set my purse on the floor of the car and grabbed the diaper bag but NOT my purse, then shut the door and headed into the doctor... not even realizing what I had done! UGH! Such a pain since our doctor's office is in Hudson! So my sister (who lives in Woodbury) came to my rescue, since I had a photo shoot at her neighbor's house that I was late for. Then my dad drove my spare set of keys over and drove me back to Hudson to get my car! What an ordeal!! But it all worked out! and like I said, we had another photo session with my dear friend Mary Burns! Such a fun afternoon! Hopefully we will get our Christmas cards soon so you can see the photos! Below is one of the priceless pics she took! I got her red velvet slippers to go with her Christmas dress and we couldn't resist taking the shot below. My little Christmas angel! :)

Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately our Thanksgiving with a bit of a let down. Our plan was to spend the day at Ben's sister Ashley's house in Carver. His sister Bridgit and her family were in town from Iowa too! On Wednesday Ben went to the doctor and found out he had strep throat. We thought the antibiotics would be working by Thanksgiving but not so much! :( So he spent the whole day in bed. Thankfully, the kids and I were able to spend the day with my family at my sister's. We felt bad leaving Ben but he was in isolation in the bedroom, we didn't want to catch strep! On Friday he was still miserable so he went back in and got some stronger meds and is feeling good now! FINALLY!! Overall it was a good day!

We have so much to be thankful for! 2 healthy, happy kids, great family and friends!! Below is a picture of the kiddies from Thanksgiving!

Let it snow...

2010-11-13T12:18:00.001-08:00

I was up in the night feeding laney and looked out to see the first snowfall! Ahhh... so sad! I miss the days of being in my swimsuit sitting on the beach at the cabin! But that shall come back eventually I guess! time to embrace the cold!! Matthew of course, helped Ben shovel the driveway and came in with bright red checks and a runny nose. He decided that he really needed hot chocolate... so Ben made him some and of course he took 1 sip of it :) It's just the idea that is fun for him!

Last night we had the in-laws to celebrate Tracy's b-day... Laney got lots of lovin' from her cousins! Isn't this the cutest pic?!
And here is the snowfall!

Enjoying a sip of hot chocolate...

Our little Laney with her super cute blanket that Auntie Fraz sent for her!

Matthew and Laney!

My one month old!!

Laney's baptism

2010-10-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

We had Laney baptized on Sunday. It was such a great day, filled with family and fun! Laney did a great job and slept through the whole thing! :) We had her baptized during the mass, which was extra special. We didn't do that with Matthew... they did it after mass and baptized about 25 babies, it was like an assembly line of babies, not very personal at all! So the mass was a really neat experience, there was only 1 other baby baptized. We had about 35 people there for the baptism and then back to my parents for lunch! It was truly a great day!

Ashley and Jordan are Laney's godparents! :)

Fr. Eilen baptizing her...

After mass...

The cake...

Our new family!

Photos by Mary Burns Photography

2010-10-19T18:35:00.001-07:00

So I am the luckiest girl alive to have a really good friend (Mary Burns) who also happens to be the BEST newborn photographer EVER! And who also wants to photograph my beautiful baby every month! Check out her amazing work at www.maryburnsphotography.com or look at the pictures below! She is so incredibly creative! these are only a few of the hundreds of photos she took! She is so great! thank you Mary!! :)

Laney Lou!!

2010-10-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

Well this post is a little overdue! But most of you that read our blog are also on Facebook so hopefully you have seen the pictures there! Our little Laney Elizabeth was born on October 7, 2010 at 12:56pm. She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 20 inches long. I had a very easy labor/delivery with her! It was actually fun! My sister was there for it all (and of course Ben was too). Our good friend Heidi stopped by as well for a visit! The whole thing lasted about 5 hours! It was great! I could do it again today! Much different than Matthew's birth, thankfully! Laney, or as Matthew refers to her, Laney Lou, is a dream baby so far! i feel like I am going to jinx myself by saying that! She is such a pretty baby and is doing pretty good at night... she gets up every 4 hours. So I feed her around 10 and she gets up around 2 and then not until 6am! We are enjoying EVERY minute of her! It is going WAY too fast and makes me sad that she is getting bigger! I LOVE this stage and wish I could keep her little forever! Matthew is adjusting pretty well! He definitely requires a little more attention from us but that was expected. he LOVES his little sister and stops playing very often to give her kisses! He is very sweet! Below are some pictures of our adventure!

Me with Kristin and Heidi as I'm laboring... this was about an hour and a half before she was born...

One of my first glimpses of my baby girl! So amazing!!

Ben and I with our little Laney Lou!

Matthew seeing Laney for the first time... yes I am crying :) My sweet babies!

Laney after her first bath!
Getting ready to go home! October 8, 2010 and it was 87 degrees!!! CRAZY!!

Laney's Room

2010-09-12T14:14:00.001-07:00

Since we are still living at my parent's, we had to do some rearranging to make room for our little Laney! Matthew was in this room (my old girlie room), so we got rid of the "office" and Matthew now has a boy room! YAY for him... although it never seemed to bother him? Should I be worried? haha! Anyway, Matthew has a red and blue room and Laney has a VERY VERY girlie room! I love it! We put up a new crib and some curtains. I just love it!

Here is Matthew's new room... we need to do some things in there but it's good for now! :)

View of the crib. The bassinet will be in our room once she is born :)
I know I will spend many hours in the middle of the night in that rocker :) Can't wait for it though!

And her changing table! I ordered a pink liner for that basket, no need for blue! :) And we kept one bed in there just in case we have visitors :) Or if I get lazy and want to sleep in with her!

Preschool

2010-09-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

Matthew started a new preschool this year at our church! You have to be 4 by Sept 1, so last year he was too young, so he went to the lutheran preschool. This year we made the switch. He will start his 3rd week of school tomorrow! He absolutely LOVES it! It is such a sweet school!

So excited to wear his new school shoes! :)

Ready to go in!

Matthew and A.P.

2010-08-24T17:56:00.001-07:00

Ben and Matthew took a road trip to the Viking training camp a few weeks ago. It was a pretty big deal! Ben even woke Matthew up early to make the trek down to get "lottery" tickets to get a CHANCE to get A.P's autograph. They handed out 2,000 lottery tix and of those 2,000 only 150 be "winners". The "winners" got to meet A.P. and get his autograph. They spent a lot of time waiting in lines... but it was all worth it! Matthew got a winner and got the meet A.P and have him sign a football, which now sits in a plastic case on his dresser!! I keep telling Ben we could make some serious cash for that ball but he refuses to part with it :) Not sure who was more excited about the whole thing, Ben or Matthew... pretty sure it was Ben :)

Another highlight of the day for Matthew was getting to see "Jackson" as he calls him. he LOVES Jackson! Check out the pics below....

T. Jack is in the red....

The long line...

And the moment of a lifetime... Matthew and A.P.!!!!

Twins game!

2010-07-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

We got tickets for the Twins game from a friend and had so much fun checking out the new stadium! We had great seats, in the out field but in the 2nd row! Matthew loved it! We had an extra ticket and my dad was busy so we brought my mom! She loved it too!!

Ou our way to the seats!
At our seats

Such a great view!

Me and my mom!

On our way out...

T-ball!

2010-07-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well the T-ball season is in "full swing"! :) Matthew is in HEAVEN! He absolutely loves being part of a team and thinks he really is a big boy now! He isn't a big fan of hitting off the tee... he is much better at being pitched to, which is pretty impressive if I do say so myself! I love watching him grow up and finding the things that he loves! It is so much fun! Yesterday he said, "Mom, what's after t-ball?" I responded, "soccer" and he said, "YES!!!" with so much enthusiasm! it is pretty cute! And after that is hockey, which will be even more of a thrill for him! It's so sweet! He is definitely our little jock! so excited to see what little Laney will be into! I'm sure Matthew will have her in the backyard before she can even walk, showing her how to play his sports! :) He is pretty excited to meet his sister. He always asks me if she is "napping", he loves to lay his head on my tummy and feel her kick! Only 2 1/2 more months until we get to meet her! We are all very excited!! :) Here are some pics of one of the t-ball games.

The kids on the bench...
My little lefty!

He is the only one with a number on his jersey. he made Ben use the hockey tape to make a "7" on his jersey. so funny!

After running into home, he had to come and high 5 us! :)

First Cabin Weekend 2010

2010-06-03T19:48:00.001-07:00

We had our first weekend at the cabin over Memorial Day! The weather was unbelievable!!! Matthew and I went down on Thursday with my parents and the rest of the crew came on Friday through Monday! Spents lots of time in the sun! It was so fun! The Ehmkes were there for the long weekend too! We spent one morning on a sandbar near Pepin, otherwise, we hung out at the cabin and relaxed! I even got a pedicure on the beach from my niece!! :) Here are some highlights!

Ben and M at the sandbar
Best buddies! Matthew and Lukey!

The girls!

Elizabeth giving me a pedi on the beach! So heavenly!

Always a highlight for Matthew... driving with Papa!

It's a...

2010-05-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

GIRL!!! We had our ultrasound on Friday and everything looked really good with our little bambino! The ultrasound tech said she has really long legs! :) We have even named her... Laney Elizabeth! We are so thrilled and cannot wait to meet her!! Here are a few pics!

Matthew's First Field Trip

2010-04-12T13:52:00.001-07:00

We took our first bus ride and field trip to the Dodge Nature Center in West St. Paul. It was a really cute field trip. The kids got to pet the animals and see a lot of different things. It was short and sweet. Here are some highlights!!!

Matthew and one his best friends Jaylen on the bus!
Jumping in the hay!

Holding a baby chick!

Matthew is 4!

2010-03-12T06:21:00.000-08:00

Matthew had a great 4th B-day! We had a huge party with 40 people... 20 kids!!! It was crazy but lots of fun! On his real b-day we went toFuddruckers for dinner and then to Chuck E. Cheese with Grandma and the Johnsons! It was so much! He had a great birthday! AND... he got rid of his PACIFIER!! WOOHOO!! The Paci Fairy came to get it and left him a brand new hockey stick and a water bottle!! So now he doesn't have to take his helmet off to get a drink! He was thrilled! Bedtime has been kind of hard! But every night it gets better! Here are some pics for you!

Here he is with his goodies from the Paci Fairy! The decorations at his party!

His favorite present... a new hockey bag!!

Blowing out his candles! I started cutting the cake and my sister in law kindly reminded me that Matthew had not blown out his candles yet! LOSING MY MIND!!

At Chuck E Cheeese! Or as my sister in law so perfectly named it... Chuck E Disease! So gross! But Matthew loved it!

Florida 2010

2010-02-23T16:24:00.000-08:00

We are home and settled after 10 days in Florida! The weather was less than perfect :( Thankfully, we saw lots of sun but it was too cold to fully enjoy it! The highs were in the 50s!! Not ideal, but it was still fun and better than the 6' high snowbanks in MN! Plus we got to spend lots of quality time with my parents, whom we miss TERRIBLY!! Below are some highlights!

Matthew with MeeMee and Papa at the North Turn restaurant... this is where the old race track was. half of the track was on the beach, it was pretty cool to learn the history of it!
And the 3 of us at the North Turn

On the Carousel at Disney World!!

Meeting Mickey and Minnie was a MAJOR highlight for Matthew!!

My little show off... this was the one day that it was semi-warm... 60s and we laid in the sun for about an hour with goosebumps :)

Sunrise... view from our deck at about 7:15am. SOOO beautiful!

Matthew playing in the big hole in front of the condo. Looks like snow, doesn't it? Nope, it's just really cold, white sand.

Getting ready...

2010-02-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

Well we are getting ready to go to FL again this year to see my parents!!We are so excited! We leave on Tues! Lots of packing to do! Below is a picture of Matthew and I, last year! Can't wait to get some more beach photos of the little man! The weather isn't looking so great so that is a bummer! But we will be there for 10 days, so hopefully we will get some sun!! :) We are super excited that my BFF Meredith and her family will be in Orlando at the same time as us, so they are coming to visit us at the beach for a day! YAY! We will also be going to Disney for a day too!! So excited! I will definitely post some things while we are there! :)

Hard times at the Schwieger household!

2010-01-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

We've had a few trying days lately! Last Friday Matthew got to go to his Kindergarten screening session. Basically they make sure that you kid is physically and emotionally where they should be for their age. He won't start kindergarten until Fall of 2011, so no rush there! At this screening, he had to talk to one of the aides and do what she said... he was pretty timid but eventaully warmed up to her and did what he was asked until... the hearing and vision tests. Not sure what spooked him but he freaked out and was crying and it was pretty sad. But that means that we have to have the doctor check him at his next visit. I am pretty sure we will get the same result. He HATES the dcotor... probably be because every time he goes he gets a shot, minus once or twice! UGH! So then we had a dentist appt for him! He was SOOOO excited to go, since our very good friends Jess & Carey are the dentists! So I tried to prep him as much as I could but it didn't help. The hygenist was a total sweet heart adn super patient with him! She ahs a little boy his same age! He let her look in his mouth and she didn't do anything except show him the "polisher"... then the tears started... she even told him that she wouldn't use it she just wanted to show it to him. He buried his face in my chest adn that was the end of that. Even when Jess came him, he wanted nothing to do with her either! Oh well! We'll tery again in July! He just gets so weird when he is put in new situations! It makes me sad that he gets so nervous and freaked out! Oh well!

So after we got home from the dentist... I had to bring Ben to the orthopaedic doc! Poor Ben dislocated his knee while skating with Matthew! He thought that maybe he had torn his ACL but thankfully that was not the case. No need for surgery just a little physical therapy and he will be good as new! Needless to say, it has been a very trying week! I'm ready for vacation!

Christmas 2009!

2010-01-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas was so much fun this year! Matthew was so cute and loved every minute of it all! Every year we split the holiday... Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with Ben's family... it works out perfect! We are lucky that our families are all local! On Christmas Eve we have a birthday party for Jesus and the kids all decorate cupcakes, then my mom has the kids all listen while she tells the Christmas story, we open presents and head to church... we pack a lot in!! Christmas Day we woke up and Matthew got to open his presents from Santa and us! Then we went to Ashley's and celebrated with all the Schwiegers... it was a great day, despite the horrible weather!! We were a little nervous about the hour long drive, but it went pretty well!!

Here is Matthew with his cupcake,as we are singing Happy Birthday to Jesus...

He got a suitcase from Kristin... he puts his hockey gear in it :)

And roller blades and a Wild jersey from my parents

My family...

Matthew asked Santa for a face mask and rollerblades. here is the facemask with a brand new helmet!

And since MeeMee bought him the rollerblades, Santa got him a Jeep instead, which was a huge hit!!!

Me with the Schwieger girls... Tracy, Ashley, me and Bridgit

Most of the cousins went outside to play! They had so much fun!!

Matthew's Christmas Program

2009-12-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

Matthew has his first pre-school Christmas program. It was the cutest thing ever!! The theme was "Birthday Party for Jesus", so sweet! I am so thankful that he goes to a Christian pre-school so that they are reinforcing the TRUE meaning of Christmas! He absolutely LOVES school and sang all the songs... it was 30 mins of straight singing! The kids all did a great job and were so cute! Then we had a little reception after, it was all adorable! So proud of our little guy! I hate to see him grow up though! The time goes so fast and it makes me sad to think he is getting so independent and doesn't need me as much! But I am so proud of the little guy that he is turning into! I love him to pieces and am SO thankful for the gift he is in our lives!!

Here he is singing with a group after putting their ornaments on the tree.
And there he is with his class singing Happy Birthday to Jesus

Here we are at the "reception"...

Matthew and Santa

2009-12-07T10:46:00.001-08:00

This was the FIRST year Matthew didn't cry with Santa! he was actually pretty excited! We went early on and there was NO line! It was perfect! He even sat a little longer and had a nice chat with Santa while I paid for the prints! It was cute! I should post the last 2 years photos where he is screaming in terror! it's pretty funny to see the progression! :)

1st Annual Cookie Bake

2009-12-05T19:38:00.000-08:00

I had such a fun Friday night! I am currently in a Bible Study with 3 of the greatest girls (Ali, Dana & Leslie)! I truly feel like they are my sisters! I love them all! Dana had done a "cookie bake" at her house with some other friends in the past and we all loved this idea! So... the girls came over with their favorite recipes and we made 4 batches of YUMMY cookies! It was so much fun! We also went through 2 bottles of wine, which may have added to our fun! :) Such a fun night filled with lots of laughter! We will be making this an annual tradition! I loved every minute of it! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures... so bummed!!!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Thanksgiving! it was a great long weekend! We started it by meeting with our friends the Toppins on Wednesday night. They were in town from Connecticut! We had a blast! On Thanksgiving morning, Ben ran the Gobble Gait so Matthew and I went down to cheer him on with the Wises! It was a really nice morning and we had a great time! We went over the Hausmans for Thanksgiving Lunch and then back to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner... such great food! We are so thankful for our families!! On Friday I am happy to say that I didn't do any shopping, instead we brought Matthew to get a flu shot! My mother in law and sister in law were nice enough to pick up a few doorbusters at Walmart for me! They are so great! Then we decorated the tree and Ben and my dad put up Christmas lights! The house looks fabulous! Then Friday night, went headed up to Ashley's for a family reunion with Ben's distant cousins! It was such a blast! Here are some pics!

Us with the Toppins at RJs!
Matthew and I waiting for Ben at the finish line!

The runners... Ben's sister Tracy ran too! And her daughter Grace was there too... she ran the 2K!

Lunch at the Hausmans... the kiddos ate first.

Ben and his mom! Love this pic!

The boys at the reunion... Sean, Jordy and Ben

The girls... Madeline, Nikki, Kristen, Heather, me, Ashley and Charlie!

The cousins... aren't they sweet!

Matthew's cell phone

2009-11-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

I have been quite lazy with the blog lately... too much going on I guess :) Here is a cute picture of Matthew as he is "texting" on his new phone. Connor gave Matthew his broken cell phone and Matthew thinks he is pretty cool! I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon :)

Swine Flu

2009-10-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hello all! It's been awhile since I posted last. We have all been sick :( Such a bummer! It all started with my sweet nephew Cullen and it spread through my family like wild fire! On Friday, the majority of the family went bowling since it was MEA, we had so much fun!! Cullen got sick on Friday afternoon, I got it on Saturday night, my sister, Kyle & Elizabeth got it on Sunday morning, Matthew got it Sunday night, my mom & Connor got a touch of it on Monday and Ben got it today! It's been crazy! Some of had it worse than others. I am happy to say that Matthew and I seem to be over the hump. We have had fevers since the weekend... but we both have been fever-free since this afternoon... we hope it is gone for good! Below are some pics from the bowling adventure!

A rare moment when Matthew and Luke are loving each other instead of fighting!
Matthew throwing the ball while Cullen stands by.

My mom, Kristin and Elizabeth

Vikings vs. Packers Game

2009-10-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Ben's boss has season tickets to the Vikings games and almost every year we get the Packer tickets! This year was especially fun with all of the Favre hype! We had pretty good seats, on the corner of the end zone and in row 11! :) But first, we headed downtown with Carey and Jess and met some more Hastings folks! We went to Sneaky Pete's and took advantage of their FABULOUS Happy Hour Specials!! Not such a good idea on a Monday night!! It's been a long week because of that!! And during halftime I got to see Heidi!!! So fun! needless to say we had so much fun and it was a great game to watch! I loved it! It was fun to have a night out after a weekend of being a mom 24/7 :)

At Sneaky Petes...

Us with Carey and Jess...

We even could see Randall McDaniel! if you look in the front row, he is wearing his yellow Hall Of Fame jacket!
Heidi and I with a random DIE HARD fan! :) Couldn't resist the photo op! :)

Mommy & Matthew Weekend

2009-10-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Mattthew and I spent some quality time together this weekend while Ben was in Kansas City at a Nascar race! :) Friday we went bowling with one of my BFFs, MerBear and her boys Ben and Jake and we spent the night at their house! We had so much fun! her boys are 5 and 8 and are SOOO sweet to Matthew, he loves them! Saturday morning we picked up Connor and Cullen and brought them to Connor's soccer game... Holy Angels vs. Cretin Durham Hall. Connor's team lost, but he did get a very impressive goal! it was 46 degrees and raining :( Not so fun to sit and watch that game!! After that we headed to Hastings to go to Tori's b-day party at the gymnastics center! Kim hired 2 coaches, one for the girls and one for the boys. Matthew had some more "big boys" to hang out with! He was in his glory!! :) On Sunday the 2 of us just hung out and relaxed... it was great! That afternoon we went to watch Grace's gymnastics meet! she did awesome of course and qualified for State! YAY Gracie!

Matthew getting ready for his first shot! :)

At Mer's house with Jake (8) and Ben (5)

Playing goalie at halftime at Connor's game....

At the b-day party jumping into the foam pit... adding a twist!

The kids at the b-day party... Matthew would not sit for the picture. :(
And our little gymnast!

Golf Tournament!

2009-09-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

We had another super successful golf tournament! The weather was the best yet... 80 and sunny! We had a great turnout! Always fun to spend the day with friends. It means SOOO much to us to have our friends there and we appreciate the effort it takes to get out there! :) So thank you for coming! Meredith came and spent the day hanging out with me and was a HUGE help! Dana and Leslie's hubbies came and golfed and then the girls came down for dinner! It was awesome! I loved having them there!

It is such a crazy crazy busy day of running around and trying to be organized but we still manage to have lots of fun and remember our Stacy. It is a great day to hear stories about her and have so many people together who loved her! We treasure the memories!

Me and Mer out on the course. Look how cute she is in her golf apparel!
Dana's hubby is on the far right (Aaron), and Leslie's hubby (Justin) is next to him. I am so sad that I didn't get pics of the girls :(

My sister (2nd from the right) and her friends were selling jello shots and running a bar on the 6th hole... so Mer and I spent part of the day there.

Heidi, me, Mike (my bro in law) and Mer doing a cherry bomb... ugh!

Visiting Mindy (Stacy's best friend) and Kim... they were running a game at a hole.

(L to R) Mindy, Mary, Kim, Me & Mer

My favorite part of the day when we let off balloons up to Stacy at the end of the day.

Our little Tiger Woods!

2009-09-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

So Matthew has really been wanting golf clubs, so we finally ordered him some. He is left-handed and all of the "play" golf clubs are right-handed so the clubs he has, he hasn't been able to really use them correctly! So we waited and waited for UPS to deliver them last Friday. They finally came at 6pm and Matthew was SOOO excited. He had his golf gear on... including his soccer cleats, and was ready to roll! He and Ben have been to the driving range twice in the past week! I think that I need to hurry up and have another baby or I will be hanging out by myself quite a bit while they are out golfing! :) Here is a little video of the action!

Labor Day weekend highlights and FIRST day of PRE-SCHOOL!

2009-09-08T08:16:00.001-07:00

We started off Labor Day weekend on Friday afternoon with a going away "night out" for the Toppins (Maggie & Chris). They are moving to CT for Chris' job! We are sad to see them go, but will have a new place to visit! 45 min train into NYC! WooHoo! We went to the Skybar and sat outside and cocktails and then to Pizza Luce and to Bootleggers... good time had by all! So good that we had to stay downtown at the Graves 601 hotel... such a nice place! Good deals to be had on ORBITZ!! :)

We got up on Saturday morning and headed straight to the cabin for some Forced Family Fun! Which really isn't forced at all! Everyone was down at the cabin for at least part of the weekend! We had a great time and AMAZING weather!! So much fun. I hate Labor Day weekend... it always feels like the end of summer and that is SOOOO depressing to me. I love fall but HATE what comes after it!

And TODAY is the biggest day... Matthew started pre-school!! My baby is at pre-school right now! Yes, I did cry when I left him, but he started it! So hard to see him sad. I know he is having so much fun! I just can't believe that he is old enough to be in preschool already! time boes by so fast! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was sitting with a brand new baby! I really can't believe that he is 3 1/2! I can't imagine the day when he starts kindergarten... I will be such a mess!

On that note... i will leave you with some pictures!

Here are Maggie and Chris... so cute! Jess (Tri), Maggie and myself at Bootleggers

On to the cabin... my grandma made us all these aprons, so here we are modeling them!

Matthew with Connor and Griffin looking for "sea glass"... so cute! They were gone forever! Thank God for older cousins to entertain Matthew!

The WHOLE clan!! Only missing my brother who got called away to work!

A family photo of us by the bonfire!

I'm feeling a little nostalgic so I had to put in a picture of my little baby matthew... what a sweet baby he was! Check out his nice clean blanket which is now completely tattered and a gross shade of grey! it has gotten a lot os love over the past 3 1/2 year! He was only 1 day old in this pic!
And here he is on his first day of pre-school! Ugh, how time flies!

MN State Fair

2009-08-31T18:57:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Ben came home early and we hit up the State Fair. I HATE crowds but I LOVE any kind of junk food so the State Fair is heaven to me! Just the 3 of us went and had so much fun! We didn't have an agenda except to EAT! And that we did... 2 orders of cheese curds, Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies, mini donuts, pronto pup and a strawberry malt from the Dairy Barn! it was all so good that I would really like to go back and eat again! :) Too bad you can't have that food delivered! :) We also saw Mike Pomeranz from KARE 11 introducing the news. he is actually cuter in person!

We had one scary little incident... Ben went into one of the building to find a bathroom and Matthew and I decided to wait outside and people watch. As we were doing just that a man walking behind Matthew had massive seizure. It was super scary. It all happened in slow motion! It seemed to take forever for anyone to do anything... it was so disturbing to me that people just stood there and stared at this poor man. I ran over there but there was nothing I could do and in a matter of 20 seconds, a woman ran up and said she was an EMT and then a few cops showed up and the ambulance was there really fast and I got Matthew out of there... luckily he was sitting with his back to it and didn't see any of it. The man did a face plant into the sidewalk and there was blood everywhere. So I got Matthew out of there and we waited for Ben. It was such a freaky experience. We said a little prayer for the guy and hope he is OK. He was all by himself, I felt so horrible for him! UGH!! I just wish I knew if he was OK.

So after that, it put a little damper on the night but we still had fun. here are some pics!

Ahh cheese curds!!! These were Matthew's favorite!!

Can't get enough of that face!! :)

Pitching for the Twins :)

matthew wants to trade in the minivan for a Jeep! Smart kid!!

Mommy Getaways!!

2009-08-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

I feel so lucky to have gotten 2 girlie getaways in the last 2 weeks! SO Spoiled! Spent some time with my BFFs at the cabin! Fraz flew in from Denver, Stacy came up from Chicago and Mer and I all got to spend some quality time with NO kiddos! It was so great! I love my girlfriends and would be sooo lost with them all! it still amazes me that we have kept up our friendships even with all the miles between us! We met 13 years ago! So amazing! We try to get together at least once a year, usually one of us will have a kids with us, but this was the first time in a long time that we had no kiddos! it was great!!!

Then this past week, I went to my sister's friend, Heidi's cabin! I love Heidi like a sister too! She is so much fun! It was Heidi, Kristin, Mary and myself and then Mary Burns came up later and a friend of Heidi's came up for our last day! We were like Crazy Women... out of control! We had such a good time and laughed more than I have in such a long time. While, I love my family... but it is soooo good for me to get away! I think I need a getaway at least once a month! HA!!

Here are some pics!

Mer, Stacy, Fraz and I on a boat ride!

And at the Farmer's Market in Red Wing... it was COLD!

Stacy had to leave us, but we went out anyway! Gotta love the night-life in Lake City!

And my 2nd girls getaway! me and my sistas! Kristin, me and Mary!

Heidi, Me and Krissy

Awww... love my big sis!

At the Cabin Bar... pretty sure they will remember us forever! :)

One of the many reasons why...

PeePee on the Pot-tay!

2009-08-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

That is our new song! Matthew is finally potty trained! On Friday I decided that we were going to take the plunge and wear undies all day! No pull-up and no diapers and it worked! Matthew is officially potty trained all on his own! We are so excited! Once he pooped on the toilet, he got a skateboard! he loves it! And he has the CUTEST boxer briefs! They are hilarious! I will upload some pics of it all soon! Had to share the good news!! YAY!

July!

2009-07-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

Well July has shaped up to be a BUSY month for us! I am happy to say that it has all been very fun! We spent the 4th of July weekend with my family at my sister in law's parent's cabin. We had so much fun! We also had a wedding a few weeks ago. Ben's cousin was married and had the reception on a boat on Lake Minnetonka... unfortunately it was the Saturday that was about 60 degrees. Such a bummer but still fun! And of course Rivertown Days, which is the town festival in Hastings... the parade route runs right by my brother's funeral home... so we always gather in his side parking lot and have a great time! This past weekend was really fun! Friday night we sat outside and had dinner with Ben's mom and sister and her kids and then went for ice cream! YUM! On Saturday, we had some friends over for dinner with their babies! Matthew had a GREAT time playing a real baseball game with the dads! It was pretty cute! Not sure who had more fun... the dads or Matthew!? Then on Sunday we had a super relaxing day at the waterpark in Hastings and then Michael and Mary and the kids came for dinner! This weekend is going to be SOOOO much fun! My friend Fraz from Denver is flying in for a girls weekend at the cabin with our friends Meredith and Stacy! I am so so so excited! This will be the first weekend in a LONG time that we will get together with NO kids!! Can't wait to cause some trouble! haha! :) I will post some pics of that next week!!

Here we are posing under the Hastings bridge by the river!

Matthew and Daddy and cousin Connor off for a SeaDoo ride on the 4th of July!

Sean and Madeline at their wedding (obviously!!)

The girls at the wedding... me, Bridgit, Heather (Ben's cousin) and Ashley!

Matthew found his friend Vincent at the Rivertown Days parade... they go to daycare together! Vincent takes the summers off... so they were really excited to see each other!

The backyard baseball game!

Matthew and daddy at the waterpark... so cute!

Matthew playing!

Weekend at the cabin

2009-06-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Matthew and I spent the weekend at the cabin while Ben was at a bachelor party up north. We had a great time. Friday we (my parents, matthew and I) took the boat over to Pepin, WI to the Pickle Factory and had lunch which was the highlight of the weekend for me :) I sat in the sun and read while M took his nap...it was heavenly! Then my sister dropped 2 of her 4 kids (Elizabeth and Lukey) off while the rest of the fam went to Logan's baseball tournament in Rochester. Then on Sunday, they all came back and we hung out for the day! Ben was able to come down and enjoy part of the day too! It was a great weekend! Here are some pics :)

Matthew loves to drive the boat.
I love that face!

Matthew and Elizabeth on the tube... he actually did go for a short ride! He is a little cautious though :)

Lukey and Matthew taking a bath in the tub... so cute!

Matthew all suited up in Logan's baseball gear...

He takes it all so serious!

Pictures

2009-06-29T11:38:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos as promised in my last post.

Carey & Jess' baby shower... not sure where Carey is? Everyone decorated a onesies for Baby Ryder... everyone did a great job!

Matthew made that for Ben at daycare... so cute! It was a jar with peanuts and on the outside it said, "I'm nuts for you Dad"It was very cute and Matthew was so proud.

Rise and Shine Daddy! Happy Father's Day!

Here it is! THE photo that won me big brownie points! :) He deserves it!

Ugh...

2009-06-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe another month has gone by with no posts! So sorry! I have literally been on the move non-stop for the past 3 weeks! We had a surprise 40th b-day party for my sister... which was SO great! It was truly a surprise! She had no idea and that made my night!! She does so much for me and the rest of our family, she truly deserved this party! Then one week later I threw a baby shower with my friend Maggie for our friends Carey and Jess... it was a couples shower! Another great party! But I am EXHAUSTED from all the planning and being on the go! Father's Day was FABULOUS! Ben had seen a picture of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods smoking cigars on a golf course... he has been obsessed with it ever since he saw it (back in May!!) So, in true "Sarah-fashion", I gave him crap about how lame he was for being obsessed with googling this photo! In the meantime I ordered him a framed copy of it with autographs (not the original) on it and the whole 9 yards. he had no idea! He was so excited! It was very fun to surprise him! he deserved it, after all, he has to put up with me!!

I am looking forward to a fun weekend with my peanut Matthew at the cabin this weekend! Ben will be gone at a bachelor party.

I promise I will post some photos soon to highlight all the action!

Memorial weekend!!

2009-05-26T17:24:00.001-07:00

We had another crazy busy but fun weekend! We started out the weekend going to dinner with our friends, the Toppins, to plan a couple's shower that we are having in June for the Tris... it went very well... we decided on a menu and are good to go! On Saturday morning we hit the Farmer's Market in St. Paul with my parents and decided to start a vegetable garden! I love that place! We bought tomatoes, snap peas, lettuce, banana peppers and green peppers to start. Lots more to add though! Matthew had a great time helping MeeMee plant! Saturday night we headed to Ashley and Jordan's to Jordan's grad party... he got his MBA! Yea for Jordy!! Sunday was my mom's b-day and today is my sister in law Mary's bday! So Kristin and I had a family party for them at Kristins... it was the most perfect day... we had great food and enjoyed a few vodka/lemonades! On Memorial Day, my mom, Mary, Kristin, Kim and I headed to Grand Ave for some shopping and lunching! This was to celebrate the bdays again but with no boys and no kids! It was so much fun! We had an awesome 2 1/2 hour lunch at Salut. It is always so nice to have an uninterrupted adult conversation with the girls! lots of laughing that's for sure! We had such a great time until my mom tripped over a crack in the sidewalk... the poor thing! She scraped up her elbow and got a puncture would in her knee from her "fancy pants". Once we knew she was OK, we got quite a kick out of this! She had on a very cute pair of jean capris that had beading at the bottom... when she biffed, the bead made a puncture wound under her knee cap and pulled out a little piece of fat, which we thought was a tendon or a ligament or something... so we brought her to the ER (since it was a holiday) and they told us it was just a piece of fat. So we were in the waiting room and she decides that she is fine, she said as long as it wasn't a tendon she didn't think she needed to see the doctor. So we busted her out of the ER and were on our way. Needless to say we had a lot of laughs over this! My mom is so incredibly funny and can laugh at herself like no one I have ever met! I love her to pieces and I am so lucky to have her. What a riot! Thank goodness she is OK and just had some bruises and scrapes and not a broken leg or hip! Anyway, enough rambling! Below are some highlights!

We also went to the zoo last week... here is a pic of the kiddos! Ava Matthew and Lukey

Ava, my 4 year old niece took this picture! isn't it cute?! So impressive!
Here they are planting the vegetable garden... pretty pathetic, we have about 8 plants! Check out Matthew's gloves that about 10 sizes to big.
And the cute birthday girls!
This was our fun lunch before my mom took her tumble. Mom, me, Mary, Kim and Kristin

Baby Ben Turner...

2009-05-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

Last week Ali, Dana and I went to visit our sweet friend Leslie who had her BEAUTIFUL baby boy BEN last Monday! He is the sweetest thing EVER! I REALLY want a baby right now! :) He is such a gorgeous little guy and Leslie looked great and has the new mommy glow! So fun to see friends so happy! Can't wait to see him again... what a honey!

Mother's Day, Wedding, B-day, etc.

2009-05-18T11:08:00.001-07:00

So needless to say life has been crazy busy! I continue to wonder if it will ever slow down!? It has been almost a month since my last post!! That is the longest I have neglected the blog! Sorry. So May has been non-stop. May 1st was the anniversary of my sister Stacy's death. We still miss her like crazy! It has been 6 years, which is so hard to believe that life has gone on. So much has changed. I wish more than anything that she was here! So we celebrate her every May 1st by all getting together. We all went to the cemetery and let off balloons, "up to Stacy in Heaven". Then just the adults went out to dinner, which was nice. We are planning our 7th annual Stacy Egan Memorial Golf Tournament and started a blog for it... so now I have 2 to keep up! AUGH! check it out at http://stacyegantournament.blogspot.com/ Below is a pic of all of the kids waiting to let their balloons go!
And up to Stacy they go.

Next was Mother's Day! It was a great day, we spent the morning with my family... had an awesome brunch that my sister made and celebrated the moms as well as Lukey's 2nd b-day! Such a fun morning, then napped Matthew and headed out to dinner with the Schwieger side of the family at the Bierstube... everyone was there except Bridgit and Todd and the kids who live in Iowa. It was chaotic but fun! The best part of Mother's Day was the present that Matthew made me for. He was so excited to give it to me. It was a jar with pretty stones in the bottom and a votive so it was a candle... adorable!! Scary picture of me but he looks so adorable!

Then we had a very exciting b-day celebration for Mary Burns... she is my sister's neighbor, my old boss and one of my most favorite people. We had a little b-day lunch for her at my sisters with my mom and another neighbor, Tracey. It was so fun!

And on to the wedding! Ben's dad, Bob, got re-married and Ben was the best man! Jordan was the other groomsman. He and Karen seem very happy so that is great!

And here are the 2 cutest flower girls ever! Kennedy and Lauren! They were precious and did such a great job!

All dressed up!

The reception was at Mississippi Dunes golf course, it was so pretty! It started out raining but cleared up and was a great night! Here is Ben with his 3 sisters, Ashley, Tracy and Bridgit.

Us with my parents. So cute!

The next day (Saturday) we celebrated a late Mother's Day with the girls, since Bridgit wasn't home. So we went shopping without the kids and to PF Changs for lunch! SOOO fun! Then we went back to Ashley's and met up with the boys and kids and celebrated Bridgit's b-day a little early. It was so fun!! Then to end the weekend, we had a bridal shower on Sunday morning and a belated b-day party for Cullen that afternoon... It was a CRAZY busy weekend! Happy Birthday Bridgit!!!

So that is it in a nutshell and that was only the first 2 weeks of May! Lots more to come as we celebrate my mom, Mary and Stacy's bdays! Plus Labor Day is in there and we have another wedding! So fun! I think I need a vacation! :)

busy busy busy

2009-04-27T20:01:00.001-07:00

Life just doesn't stop! We have been on the run NON-STOP! I am so over it! Ben has been at a Nascar race in Taladega all weekend... yes the home of Ricky Bobby. He gets home late tonight! He has turned into quite the race fan! :) Makes me laugh. He deserved a weekend away and had a fun time... but I know he missed Matthew and I a lot :) Do you blame him?!

We had a jam-packed weekend without him though! It was a weekend of re-connecting! On Friday we hit up the zoo for the 2nd time that week with some of my old Target friends and their kids. (We also went on Tuesday with another Target friend Megan and her son Josh!) But Lisa, Cindy and I worked together on the Home Decor/Domestics team. We have been trying to get together monthly and we have always have a great time catching up! Friday night I baby sat Grace and Griffin while M & M were at the Spring Fling (school fundraiser) with my parents. Saturday morning was more re-connecting! Matthew and I had coffee with some old Galyan's friends!! Holly and Mary and I worked together at the Woodbury store in the apparel area back when I was a young 20 year old! YIKES! it has been awhile! Mary lives in OH and Holly lives in Cottage Grove. We had some so much fun reminiscing about the good ol' days of happy hours and people! Matthew had fun with one of Holly's little boys, Sam. They were so cute and so good while we sat and chatted for 2 hours! So patient! :) Matthew went home and napped and then we met Mer and Benny for dinner and a little shoe shopping! He was soooo crabby, so we didn't last too long with them. Sunday we went to church, had breakfast with my parents and brother and then I had a baby shower for my friend Jess (she is married to Ben's BFF Carey) with my sweet mother in law. Jess is due on June 1st! I am soooo excited for her to have her baby! I need a baby fix!! I also won a SWEET door prize at the shower, a huge pot of pansies! Then Sunday night Griffin came to hang with us again while everyone went to Grace's gymnastics banquet! And I crashed at about 9:00! Soooo tired! I was actually happy to go to work today and relax!! Ben should be home soon! We missed him a lot and can't wait to get back into our routine of normal life! I will leave you with some pics... I didn't have my camera for most of the weekend :( Too busy for taking pictures!

1st trip of the week to the zoo... Josh and Matthew. They are the same size but Matthew is about 18 months older... my little peanut!

2nd trip to the zoo...

Lisa's little Brennah... happiest baby EVER! She is so adorable and sweet!

Matthew and Izzy on the huge pig... so gross! But they are pretty cute!

Easter 2009

2009-04-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous Easter... it was really mellow! My sister-in-law Mary and I did a little egg hunt for the 3 kids. My sister and her family were in Milwaukee and Mike and the boys were in DC watching the Frozen Four so it was a small crowd. The egg hunt was a hit... Matthew love it! And he loved his Easter Basket just as much! :) Too much candy, though, in my opinion. I have done a great job helping Matthew eat it all!! :) We also got to color Easter eggs twice! So fun!

Here is Matthew with his first round of coloring eggs....

And waking up at the CRACK OF DAWN to find that basket! Check out the gorgeous sunrise in the background! 6:15am!

And here are the kids with their loot after the egg hunt!

Crabby McCrabberton

2009-04-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I have posted... we have been so busy with the latest edition to our family... Crabby McCrabberton! Yes that's right, we got a hermit crab! My mom thought it would be fun to have one so she got one for herself and Matthew. It is pretty funny! He adds lots of entertainment to our lives! Matthew love it! They are about the only kind of pet I can tolerate... hypo-allergenic, they stay in their cage and you only have to feed them every 4-5 days and they don't make a mess! You can see some photos below! I would highly recommend them to anyone with kids who is not a real animal lover :)

Last weekend, Ben and Matthew went with Grandpa Bob to the Auto Show and bought me a new toy for the summer (see below)... not too sure if the car seat will fit in it or not!? Haha! I wish! They had a great time and all the models LOVED my husband because of his cute son! :) Apparently Matthew is a chick magnet!

We are excited for a busy weekend... Tonight we are hitting up the Fish Fry at our church with my family and all the kids... I'm sure it will be complete chaos! And tomorrow we are hoping to go see the farm babies at the zoo and we are going to the Timberwolves game on Sunday! Should be a fun one!! I will leave you with some photos!

My mom and Matthew posing with Crabby... he is sitting on the "tree" that my mom is holding. He has a fancy painted shell, silver swirls!

Crabby is climbing the tree... if you look close you can see his legs :)
We got a dusting of snow so Matthew had to go shovel for us... nice work! He wanted his picture taken... what a ham! Yes he is in his jammies! :)

Last but not least... here they are with my new car!! YAY! Not really my choice of a color but beggers can't be choosers! :) Heehee!

Ben's 30th Birthday!

2009-03-22T06:18:00.001-07:00

Ben is 30!! Yesterday was his real birthday!! We had a jam packed day, of course! Bridgit and Todd were here to celebrate from Iowa so we took the kiddies to the MOA so Ben could go on some rides :) Then we had a dinner party with our families and a few friends at Wiederholts... it was so much fun! We rented their party room so everyone got to hang out and chat before we had dinner! After dinner we went to Dugarels, a local bar in Hastings! After the bar we tried to go to Taco Bell but it was closed! What happened to them being open late?? So we headed to Perkins... not such a good idea... it was 1:30am! So we didn't crawl into bed until 3:00AM!! And of course Matthew was up at the crack of dawn... 6:45! UGH! It is going to be a long day but it was so worth it!! We had such a fun night!! Here are some pics!

Ben on the blues clues ride... Matthew was with him, but I think the photo is funny b/c he looks like he is all alone :)
Ben and his Wii! We surprised him! YAY! He loves it!

Ben and his cake

Ben and I at Dugarels :)

And Ben reflecting on his great b-day at Perkins! :)

Misc...

2009-03-17T13:39:00.001-07:00

So I was going through my pics and found some fun things that we did in the past month that didn't make the blog! So here you go!

My sister found a new place for kids in Woodbury called "Little Kids, Big City" and it is set up like a little city. They have a grocery store, a fire engire, a car repair place and a post office. It is super cute. Matthew and Lukey had a blast until Matthew got into a fight over the fire hose... not a pretty site!

Here is M at that gorcery store.

And the car thing... they also had a station where you could put gas in and change the tires. CUTE!

And Matthew and Luke and part of my sister at the Post Office

And more post office...

And Lukey in the fire truck

Matthew has been taking naps in a big boy bed at daycare for weeks now. So he decided that he wanted to sleep in a big bed at home.... he and I went to Target to buy a rail and he was so excited... Ben got home late that night and put together the railing (see photo below with BIG SMILE). He finally finished at about 9... way past Matthew's bed time. So we go to put him in the bed and of course... he doesn't want to sleep in it. We have been trying for the past few weeks, not really pushing it though. And he isn't ready! he's 3, so we think it is about time... soon the crib will come down and we will have to play hard ball :( This is his room at my parent's house... it's my old room :) Isn't it so cute for him? Poor kids is going to have a complex sleeping in a girlie room!

Matthew has also enjoyed some baking! Here he is concentrating on decorating his cookie

And even better... eating it!

and the finished product... they are suppose to be bunnies... not sure why I did green frosting??

We also got in a trip to the zoo with Auntie Oopie, Marlowe, Dana and Kaden! I didn't take too many pics there, but here a few. :)

Matthew and Kaden checking out the aquarium...
And Marlowe loved the zoo sooo much that she slept right through it! :)

Spring has SPRUNG!!

2009-03-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

The weather has been soooo great! Which means that Matthew and Daddy have been outside in their glory... playing playing playing!! Here are some shots from last night's "hockey game". Check out the sweet goalie pads :)

Not sure if he is trying to be a monkey or a goalie here??

One more thing...

2009-03-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that I am single mom again this weekend? Ben got to go snowmobiling with his boss again! They left on Thursday morning at 6:30am for the U.P of Michigan where there is a ton of snow! They are having a great time! Except for when Ben took a corner a little too fast and fell off the snowmobile!!! Thank God he is OK but it could have been pretty bad had he not gotten out of the way! Stacy was on Angel Duty and watching out for him today! He will be home on Sunday so hopefully he will stay safe tomorrow too! We will keep praying for it! :) And I think that it scared him enough to be a little more cautious! Happy weekend to you all!

March updates

2009-03-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting the blog, so this could be a very long post... sorry! We have had lots of fun things going on! So I will show you what we have been up to with some pictures. Real quick though, I went to Grace's gymnastics competition in Milwaukee, with my mom, Mary (my sister in law), and Griffin! Correct, Matthew and Ben had a "guy's weekend"! It was fun to get away and very relaxing... I forgot the camera so I am very sad about that. But our Gracie girl kicked some fanny and got 1st in her level/age group! She is so talented and it is so fun to watch her! I am so very proud of her!! YAY Gracie!!

Matthew's b-day was on Monday! He is 3 now! He had a very fun day! I ran over to get donuts to start off the day. Also, the Birthday Fairy made a special trip over and decorated Matthew's room with balloons! (Of course I forgot to take a picture of that!) MeeMee and I took him to Pizza Hut for lunch and then the 3 of us met Daddy at the MOA for some rides and dinner! My dad was golfing in Vegas so he missed out on the fun! It was a great day! We had his 2nd family party on Wednesday and celebrated Elizabeth, Connor and my Grandma's b-day as well!

Here he is blowing out the first of many candles! :) We love to celebrate! :)And his big present from us... his first real bike! He loves it and is so excited that the snow is melting off the deck so he can ride around by himself! :)
So after all the festivities of the morning.... he took a bath and we always snuggle him up on our bed so he can watch cartoons before he gets dressed for the day... and he fell asleep... this was at about 9:30am! So cute! (the sheets were in the wash!)

He and MeeMee were on the balloon ride! He was so excited that she got to go with him! She hasn't been to the MOA with us before! :)

After the MOA we can home and he opened the rest of his presents from us and a few from MeeMee and Papa! He got a Hot Wheels rug to race his cars on... a big hit!

Here he is at his family party with his HOCKEY cake! He was so so so excited!! he would come up from playing to just to check it out.

Here is the whole gang that had b-days!
Opening MORE presents!

In his gear from the Michael and Mary... he wore this whole get-up home, under his coat and reused to take the helmet. he would have slept in it if I would have let him! He LOVES any type of equipment! So funny!

That ends the b-day extravaganza! :) Last night we stopped over to visit the Egan boys and they got him all dressed up as a goalie... he hasn't stopped talking about it ALL day! He was so proud! Connor and Cullen are the sweetest boys ever... they love to play with him!

We also had a visit from our favorite baby Marlowe!! She is getting so big! It was so fun to have them over! She is the sweetest, most perfect baby EVER!!
BABY FEVER!!!

The start of Matthew's b-day celebrations!

2009-03-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun weekend! It was jam packed! Ashley and Jordan moved into their GORGEOUS new house!! We are so excited for them! Bridgit, Todd and the boys came up from Iowa to help, so we decided to celebrate some birthdays while they were here... Jordan's b-day is tomorrow, Calvin's is March 4th and Matthew's is March 9th! We had a birthday brunch this morning... we even sang Happy Birthday and put candles in the birthday boys' cinnamon rolls... then a little while later, we sang again and had DQ cake... YUM! Matthew will have another party on the 11th when we celebrate with my side of the family and have a joint party with Elizabeth who turns 10 tomorrow! YAY! Normally we have one big party for Matthew but it was hard to coordinate and we are trying to simplify.... not sure if we succeeded or not!?

We also had a party to celebrate my brother in law, Mike's mom! She was in the ICU about a year ago and had a prettty severe heart attack, they didn't think she would make it. She is a fighter and pulled through and is doing GREAT! So we went to a party to celebrate Mary Lee! What a great night it was! I forgot my camera though :(

Matthew and Carson blowing out the candles...
Matthew opening his big present from the Oakes', the Johnsons' and Grandma!He got a Leapster and even a game to go with it! He loves it!! He is actually sitting next to me playing it! :) Great idea Bridgit!!

Florida!

2009-02-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

We are very sad to be back from Florida! We had sooooo much fun! Matthew was so adorable and loved every minute of vacation! He was also very lucky to spend part of his vacation with 2 of his cousins, Connor and Cullen! And it was SOOOO good to see my mom and dad... I think they missed us as much as we missed them... but they have been having a great time in Daytona Beach Shores.... the weather has been unseasonably cold there so that has been a bummer for them. We had OK weather, it was a little cooler than we would have liked, but it didn't stop from getting some sun and having lots of fun! The week went by so fast but we packed a lot in! We went to lots of beach restaurants, did lots of walking on the beach, rented golf carts to drive on the beach, went mini-golfing, my dad and Ben got to go to the Daytona 500 and Ben and I even got to out to dinner ALONE to celebrate our 4th anniversary! The place we went was in a marina and there were HUGE yachts that were either rented or owned by NASCAR drivers or team owners. I have never seen yachts this big! They were larger than most homes, they had full service bars and a full staff... it was so fun to be able to see into them as we ate! We had a great dinner and will remember our 4th anniversary as an extra special one! Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip. If you would like to see more pics, you are can click on the 2 links below :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61743&id=837252161&l=bf214 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61748&id=837252161&l=b74f2

This was taken on our last day... had to get one last walk in!
Matthew driving the golf cart!

Matthew and Daddy and their awesome sand castle!

Mini golfing!

It was hard to get Matthew's naps in, so he took several naps on the beach in the stroller! So cute!

Burying Cullen and Matthew in the sand!

Having lunch at Crabby Joe's and looking for sting rays!

At a restaurant in Ponce Inlet... there was a guy who had a boat with this parrot on it... it's name was Skittles and he talked and danced.

Super Bowl

2009-02-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that Ben is home safe and sound! He had a great time and loved snow-mobiling! I am a little worried that he is going to be gone every weekend doing this! :) It was good for him to get away, but we missed him and were happy to have him home early on Sunday! :) They left super early and he was home by 9:00am with a McDonald's breakfast! It was a great surprise!

We had a little Super Bowl party. It was super laid back and really fun to have people over. Matthew loved it too. He loves to be on the go or be around people. Every morning he wakes up and says, "Where are we going? I want to go someplace else." He definitely is NOT a home-body! Carey and Jess Tri (Carey and Ben have been friends since birth), Ali, Michael & sweet baby Marlowe Cain (Ali and I have been friends since birth also), Chris and Maggie Toppin (I've known Maggie almost since she was born... I hate to admit this but I used to baby-sit Maggie.. UGH! I'm old!!! and Chris and Ben are friends) and the Ashley (Ben's youngest sister) and her family all came over to watch the Super Bowl. I love entertaining and hope to do it more often! Below are some photos of the festivities! Also, more fun news... Carey and Jess are expecting their first baby in June! It's a boy! YAY!

Lots of laughter!

Matthew and his favorite baby Marlowe. She was all decked out in football apparel!

Matthew and his BFF Kennedy! Note the hockey helmet... he is obsessed! Kennedy also has an obsession... High School Musical! :) She loves to wear anything High School Musical, so she is a Wildcat Cheerleader!! I love it!

I bought these cupcakes the day before the Super Bowl and it was sooo hard for Matthew to look at them for one day and not have one... check out his face as he is eyeing it up! How funny!!

I'm a single mom...

2009-01-31T19:38:00.000-08:00

Well, Ben finally got to go on his snowmobiling trip this weekend! He is having a great time and isn't bored! I would think riding a snowmobile ALL day would get a little old, but he assured me he is having fun, so that is good! And the best part is... no injuries!! YAY! It was a last minute thing and probably not the most convenient time for him to go, since we are having people over for the Super Bowl... but it all worked out just fine! Matthew had been sick for most of the week, so he and I were together ALL week since he couldn't go to daycare. It was a bit challenging since he had to go to work with me, but luckily on Friday our sweet daycare provider, Val, said she would love to have him come even though it wasn't his scheduled day... bless her heart! He has a hard day and missed his mommy (can you blame him?). So, since Ben was gone and I was having major Mom guilt... we hit up the MOA!! It's a little tricky trying to stash the stroller while I had to ride the rides with him, but it worked out just fine. We had so much fun and he was so sweet. We were in the car on the ride home and he says "I love you Mommy, thank you for taking me to the Mall of America". SOOOO sweet, it melted my heart and he was sound asleep about 30 seconds later! I love spending time with him, when I can just BE with him, instead of trying to keep him busy while I have other stuff to do.... it is so hard and I feel like the worst mom ever... that was most of my week. So it was nice to end the week with that outing! Today I had a fun baby shower for a friend of mine, Kristen. She is due the day before Matthew's b-day, March 8! It was a great shower. I know Kristen from Bible Study, she is honestly one of the sweetest most sincere I have ever met! Almost all of the girls from our Bible study group were there... it was so good to see everyone and to celebrate Kristen and her bambino! Also, please note the new link I just put up! Kristen started a new online business! On her website, they sell all ORGANIC baby products! Super cute stuff... check it out! www.bumblebeeboutique.com I got home from that and made chicken chili for the Super Bowl party we are having... it took me over 2 and a half hours to make! UGH! It is really good so it is worth but I am exhausted. I should be in bed but instead, I got sucked into Facebook and now here I am blogging and RAMBLING! I have been terrible with my camera... I am out of habit, so I don't have any photos. I will get better and will take some of our gathering tomorrow and post them for you all to enjoy!!! I am going to make sure Matthew is covered up and tucked in and then I am going to go to bed and now I am officially done rambling.. sorry! Love to you all! Ben is home tomorrow!! YAY!

Matthew is sick..

2009-01-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

Poor little Matthew is sick. He has had a fever since Saturday! He finally let me take his temp this morning and it was 103! He was on fire! He touched his knee and said, "Ow Mommy, that's hot!" He burned his hand on his knee! So I thought OK, it's time to go see Dr. Kelly. He heard me on the phone trying to make the appt and FREAKED out! He has a phobia of the doctor. The only time he goes is for the well-child check-ups, or to get a flu shot. And at all the well child check ups he has gotten shots, so he associates the doctor with shots. This is the first time that I have brought him to the doctor when he has been sick. We have been very lucky that he has been pretty healthy... except for the colds that seem to frequent our house on a monthly basis! :) So Dr. Kelly is out of the office until mid-Feb. Boo! So we saw a new doctor and she was very nice! Matthew did a great job! He let her do all the normal stuff... check out his ears, eyes and even look in his throat. She said there was some "puss back there"...yum! So, you know what that means... yes a strep test/throat culture! I felt soooo horrible for him. I had strep about a 1,000,000 times as a kid and was traumatized after every throat culture. It was the saddest thing! She shoved the gigantic q-tips down his throat and made ME hold him down...UGH! I could cry just thinking about it. So she left the room to do whatever they do with the nasty q-tips and Matthew is sobbing saying, "can we please leave, Mommy?" Can I tell you how bad I wanted to bust him out of there? :) I didn't though. So she comes back about 15 minutes later and Matthew has not moved from my lap... the rapid test came back negative so we have to wait for the 24 hour test... which I'm sure will come back negative too. She said in that case, it's just a virus... which is why I don't ever bring him to the doctor when he is sick. But since he had the fever for so long I thought better safe than sorry. :) If he still has a fever on Thursday, we have to go back. If that is the case, I think I will ask Ben to do the honors of visiting the doctor with Matthew! But in the mean time, thank God for Motrin!! It brings his fever right down and he is good as new! So after the torment of the doctor we went to Target and he got a new soccer ball and Cheetos! And he got straight Gatorade (not watered down like I normally do) for lunch! Now is taking a nap... bless his sweet little heart! It still amazes me how much love I have for him! There is nothing better!

Making meatloaf

2009-01-25T13:09:00.001-08:00

Some good news... I have a new camera! It was so outrageously expensive to fix my camera, we we just got a new one! SO I am back in business! And so far, I am very happy with it! It was a very long month of no camera! :( We had a great weekend! Friday night, my sister took Matthew overnight... we we went out with some friends and had a great time. We went to uptown and froze our butts off... should have stayed in the 'burbs :) So Saturday morning, we went to pick up Matthew and decided to head to the zoo... we took my niece Elizabeth with us and had a great time! Here are a few pics! Saturday night was pretty uneventful... when matthew woke up for his nap he had a fever and felt terrible. Poor little guy. So he and Ben stayed home and I went to my sister's to repay the favor and baby- sat her little ones! :) Today has been a perfect Sunday in our eyes... went to church, had breakfast with my brother and sister in law and their kids and have been hanging at home doing NOTHING!!

I have to share one more story...One of Ben's favorite meals is meatloaf... he found a great recipe in the Men's Health magazine... so I make it a lot for him. This Thursday Matthew and I spent the whole day at home, so I thought it would be a great night for meatloaf and I actually had time to cook! Yipppeee! It calls for Triscuit crackers to be crushed... Matthew loves to help! Here is a picture of him "cracking the crackers" as he called it! I added a video too... he was a little tongue tied, so it is kind of hard to understand him... normally he speaks a lot better than that :)

Ali's sweet baby!

2009-01-21T19:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I haven't posted for so long! As I said, my camera was broken but I finally got a new one today! YAY! So I am back in business!! So happy!

We have been obscenely busy lately! My brother's business has been NON-STOP since Christmas, so I have been working a ton, which is great! Poor Matthew :) My parents are leaving for FL in the morning and we are heading down for a visit in a few weeks! I am so excited to experience this vacation through Matthew's eyes! I really can't wait! He is SO excited to go on an airplane.... the last time he was on one, he was only 2 mos old! He is at such a great age, too... he will be 3 in March! So I think our timing for this trip is perfect!

We also have had some exciting news... Some of you know one of my oldest and dearest friends... Ali! She had her GORGEOUS little bambino, Marlowe Forbes Cain a few weeks ago! She is the sweetest thing EVER! Ali and Michael came to Mary to have her do their photos... so I just have to post a few... I hope Ali doesn't mind me showing off her baby! :) Ali and Michael are so sweet with her, they are the most perfect little family! After spending some time with Marlowe... I have MAJOR baby fever :) I have warned Ali that I may just take her home with me!!

Check out Mary's handiwork.. yet again!
And again...

Me and Ali and little Marlowe...

More Christmas photos

2009-01-06T13:29:00.001-08:00

My camera is still not working so I brought my memory card in to Target to get the photos off the camera! So here are the photos from Christmas Eve... enjoy!

All of the girls, Top: Mary (my sis in law), me, Mom, Grandma Grobe, Kristin Bottom: Ava, Grace, Elizabeth
Matthew and Lukey sporting Matthew's new gopher hats! So cute!!

My mom buys "poppers" every year that have these stupid crowns in them along with some jokes and a stupid "prize". We think it's funny to wear the crowns!

Me and my boys!

Matthew and Daddy checking out the new tool box from MeeMee and Papa!

Matthew showing off his ornament that he made for us at daycare... he was so proud!

CHRISTMAS!

2008-12-25T20:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas was FABULOUS! Matthew had sooo much fun and got everything he wanted from Santa (which wasn't much)... he wanted a "REAL HOCKEY STICK"! Santa came through and even added in a pair of REAL HOCKEY GLOVES! He was so sweet... I wish I could have captured it on video but my mom dropped the camera last night and broke it :( I was able to use her camera to get photos this morning, but no video.... such a bummer. Oh well accidents happen! Christmas eve was spent with my family... had a birthday party for Jesus... the kids decorated cupcakes, we sang happy b-day and my mom read the Christmas story. The little ones think it is fun because they get the bring the characters forward when it is time. The older ones complain but deep down they love it too. All 20 of us went to mass which is ALWAYS a production... Matthew and Ava were fighting over her new doll... we were all crammed into one pew and practically sitting on top of each other! These are the things that we will look back on and laugh about. Griffin had the honor of playing Joseph in the Christmas story and Grace played a shepherd... she wasn't too thrilled with that honor! But they both looked adorable! Christmas Day was spent with most of the Schwieger clan.... it was a great day, super relaxing! We ate all day long and watched Mama Mia and just hung out. The kids played pretty well together, except when Matthew gave his sweet cousin Lauren a large welt on the side of her face. Fighting over toys of course! Ben has off for the rest of the week and most of next week too! We are very excited to plan some fun outings! His sister and her family are coming up from Iowa on New Year's Eve... so we will have lots going on next week too!

Hope that you all had a great Christmas and made some good memories! Much love to you all!

Here is Matthew with his REAL hockey stick!

And the gloves...

And his very cool Gopher hockey hat!

Skating again!

2008-12-20T12:17:00.000-08:00

Matthew has his 2nd experience on the ice... this went much better than the first time. He was so excited... he didn't want to leave. We took him out last weekend when it was almost 40 degrees, so he wasn't freezing! There is a video clip below with him showing off his skills and poor grammar! :) Don't mind my obnoxious commentary! :) I don't know who was more excited, Ben and I or Matthew! :) I left shortly after taking this video and he and Ben stayed for awhile longer... Ben said by the time they left, he was skating on his own with no chair. So cute!! We were baby-sitting my nephew Lukey for the weekend so he was with us and so much fun... Matthew loved pushing him on the chair! And Lukey loved to ride!

SKATING!!

2008-12-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

As most of you know, my 2 year old is OBSESSED with hockey! He wears his skates around the house and is in love with them! So Ben and my dad brought him to try out his skates on the ICE! It was FREEZING last night, so of course he didn't last too long. But he had fun for the 5 minutes he was there. I am so sad that I missed it! :( But I had to laugh because my dad and Ben got all bundled up in their snow pants, jackets, etc and they were there for literally 5 minutes! It took them longer to get ready to go there than it did to actually skate! So cute! :) They skated at the rink across from my brother's house... so my sister in law took the photo! Thanks Mary!!

As you look at the photo those of you who know Ben well will be wondering what he is wearing. My husband is not much of an outdoorsmen... he doesn't do the hunting or fishing thing... he isn't into Nascar or snowmobiling... but the garb he is wearing would say differently, right? Ben's boss is really into snowmobiling... so he asked Ben to go with him on a weekend snowmobiling trip in January to the UP of Michigan! Ben said of course he would like to go. His boss then came back to the office with all the gear that Ben will need! :) He was pretty excited! You should see the helmet he has! Bright red!! Matthew loves to wear it. I will take a picture and post it soon! So that explains Ben in his Ski-Doo gear! I love it!!

You will also notice that my dad is wearing BLAZE orange! That "get-up" is about 30 years old... Gotta love it!

Cookie Baking

2008-12-07T15:08:00.000-08:00

Well as you all know, we are shacking up with my parents. This weekend 2 of my nieces spent the night and we did some cookie baking. They enjoyed cutting out the cookies but got bored with decorating, so I ended up doing most of it. Then they talked my mom into giving them pedicures! So funny!! I wonder if I will turn into a push-over when I am a grandma? My mom does whatever they want... it's sweet! We had a super nice relaxing weekend!! On Friday Kristin and I brought the kids to see Santa... PURE COMEDY! Matthew did great at first... we had a little chat with Santa while we waited for the photographer and Matthew told Santa that he wanted a REAL hockey stick and told him about Jesus' manger and that if he was good he got to put hay in it and on and on... So it comes time for the photo when he had to SIT on his lap and he flipped out and was screaming and trying to get down! So funny! Then my sister's kids were next, just the younger 2... Ava is 4 and Luke is 19 mos.... they looked at Santa and started to FREAK! The photos are totally hilarious!! LOVE IT! So after we tortured them with Santa we let them go on the carousel at the mall... they loved it! Then on Friday night, I went out to dinner with Meredith and Sara to celebrate Mer's bday. Then Mer and I braved the bad roads and came here and had a slumber party! It was so much fun! Yesterday we went to a hockey game for my nephew and then the girls came over so we just stayed in. And today, we went to church and then I made chili and some beer bread and even got to nap on the couch for an hour! It truly was the perfect weekend!! Oh, last week at daycare the kids made paper chains to count down the days to Christmas... Matthew has his own tree in the basement so he and MeeMee and Papa put it on his tree... pretty cute! You'll see photos below.

SO proud of his tree...

Here we are on the carousel after the Santa incident...

MeeMee and the girls rolling the dough...

Me and my cookies!

And last but not least... MeeMee's nail salon.. notice Matthew looking on wonderin what the heck is going on!

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-11-30T09:35:00.000-08:00

We got up early on Thankgiving morning and were out the door by 6:45am to pick up Ben's mom and head to Des Moines, Iowa to Ben's sister's house for Thanksgiving! We had a great time even though the 3 of us were all sick, yes, sick again!! It was a small group, Ben's youngest sister Ashley and her fam were going to head down but their daughter Kennedy had the stomach flu... poor thing! So it was just us and the Oakes' and Todd's parents. We had an awesome Thanksgiving meal, turkey AND ham, mashed potatoes, Ben's mom's AWESOME stuffing, cranberries, corn casserole, sweet potatoes, broccoli salad and my favorite... rolls with ORANGE butter! It was the best thing I have ever had! And little Suzi homemaker Bridgit, made the best pumpkin swirl cheesecake! I ate myself sick! It was a great day! Then Friday morning we hit the sales! I got some SWEET deals at Kohls, tons of their toys were 50% off! SCORE! We also celebrated Carson's 4th b-day at Chuck E Cheese! It was so much fun as always. I won 80 tickets on the Deal or No Deal game... my case had the highest #! WooHoo!! Not sure who had more fun, the adults or the kids! :) We also played some board games... the game of Life as well as the Horse Racing game which was a blast!! Then we headed home on Saturday afternoon! It was a quick trip but a ton of fun! Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving as well!! I will leave you with some photos of our fun!

Here is the gang at the table!

Todd & Calvin at Chuck E Cheese...

Ben & Matthew shooting hoops!

Bridgit & Carson playing skee ball (my personal favorite!)

Carson's pizza was really hot, so he is blowing on it! So funny! Also, please note the gorgeous sketch of my son & I!

The Schwieger Family!

Happy Birthday Carson!! Check out that SWEET cake!

Matthew on the ride home... eating a cheeseburger, watching Caillou and kicking back!

Ali's Shower

2008-11-23T17:44:00.001-08:00

My mom and I threw a baby shower for Ali Cain on Saturday! It was so much fun! Ali and I have been friends since birth and she is one of my favorite people! I love her to pieces! She grew up next door to us but moved to ND when she was 4... our families have remained friends! Ali and I would always spend a week together in the summer and were even penpals! She came back her for college so we got to see each other more often! Now she is married to a great guy and they have a baby on the way. Ali is due on January 14th! We are so excited for her! We always have so much fun when we get together! Here are some pics from the shower!

L to R: Lynda (Ali's mom), Holly (Ali's sister), Me, Ali and my mom!

Me and Ali (aka Oopie!) showing off some cute stuffed animals she got!

Ali posing with her cake...

Mom with Ali and I

Some of the girls chatting as Ali was opening her gifts!

Denver Pics

2008-11-23T17:40:00.001-08:00

Here are some pics from our Denver trip, sorry I am delayed in posting! Busy week!!

This is Fraz with her mom and Abby and Sophia! So cute!
And the last 2 are of cute little Sophia! I miss that new little bambino!! :)

Denver

2008-11-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I have posted! I have been so incredibly busy! I don't think it will slow down until after the holidays! UGH! I had such a fun weekend! I went with Meredith (one of the BFFs) out to Denver to see one of our other BFFs, Amy! She recently had a new baby so we had to go visit! She has a 20 month Abby and a 4 week old, Sophia! They are SOOOO cute! I will add some photos tomorrow. It was so so so good to get some "girl time" in. I don't get that enough and it is amazing how much it "fills up my tank". I met these girls at Bethel (along with our friend Stacy, who completed the foursome), 12 years ago and we have been best friends ever since. Stacy wasn't with us this weekend and we missed her :( But , we were marveling at all that we have been through and how we truly know each other inside and out! We can pick up right where we left off. Of course we had lots of laughs and some tears were definitely shed. It is sad that we don't get to see more of each other. I am so blessed to have such close friend even if we have lots of miles between us. Thank God for cell phones and free long distance calls!!! :)

Being around a newborn has given me major baby fever!!!! I am so ready for #2!! Little Sophia was so sweet and LOVED to be held... I was more than happy to do that! :) I think I spent most of the weekend with her in my arms! there is nothing better than a new baby! And Abby is quite possibly the sweetest little girl! She has got the best personality and is so agreeable!! She is talking a ton. I even taught her a few words... "shut up"... sorry Amy! And to make up for it... "love you". It was so sweet! I miss the girls already, but was so ready to get home to my little monster. I think I missed him more than he missed me! He was pretty sad on Friday and we had some tears on the phone. But he was fine after that. He and Daddy spent the weekend with Grandma Jackie and Ashley and Jordan and their kids... so he had lot of fun people to keep him occupied! It had been awhile since I was away from him for that long. I thought I would love the break but I missed him a ton!! He is my little buddy! He had such a hard time going to daycare today. I felt so bad leaving him! Poor little guy!

My parents have been in Cabo for almost 2 weeks and they get back on Wednesday!! YAY! I miss them a ton and am so ready for them to get home! YAY! My mom and I are having a baby shower for my friend Ali so we will spend the rest of the week getting ready for that! I can't wait! It will be so fun!

Well enough of me rambling! Hope you all are doing well! I will add some photos tomorrow. I don't have my USB to upload my photos :(

Aaahhh...massage...

2008-11-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

So earlier in the week Ben asked me if I wanted to have a date night and of course I said yes but told him he had to plan it... I get sick of planning. So he planned the PERFECT date night! He made appts for us at Spalon to get massages! HEAVENLY!! It was an hour of pure and utter bliss. I did not want it to end and would like to go back for another one TODAY! We picked up Matthew at his mom's house after the massage and put him to bed. Ben got some great steaks and we had a late dinner... it was so great! Thanks honey! I appreciate it more than you will ever know! What a great night!

Today we hit up the MOA and thought it would be a quick trip, Matthew could go on a few rides, we'd have lunch and head home. Not so much. It's the holiday shopping season apparently. It was complete chaos there. I vowed I will not go back until after Christmas. It took forever to park and we went on 3 rides in an hour and half... that is how long the lines were. We will be shopping at Southdale from now on!! UGH!

Our Future Olympian!

2008-11-01T13:37:00.001-07:00

I am so proud to say that my sweet god-daughter and niece Grace is a star gymnast! We went to her meet today and although she has already qualified for state in a previous meet, she earned the highest honor in today's meet... a blue ribbon! She averaged 9 out of 10 on all her events, which does NOT happen often, only 5 girls out of at least 100 got blue ribbons! It was SOOO fun to watch her kick some butt! She is in the youngest bracket of the level 5 gymnasts and wins her age group every time! I can totally brag about her because he is not my daughter! :) Most of our family was there to cheer her on today! Her mom says that the more people that come to watch her... the better she does! YAY Gracie!

Here she is as they all marched in. She is the shortest, so she is in the front of the line up!
Here she is in action! She was warming up... no flash photography during the actual competition.

Here she is with the trophy. He gymnastics center won 3rd overall, and because she got the high score, they told her to take it home for the weekend! She was so excited!

We went out to lunch after the meet and had to celebrate with ice cream of course!!

Halloween 2008

2008-11-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Needless to say Halloween was a blast! Matthew had so much fun trick or treating and hanging out with his cousins. Here is our little hockey player! He loved every minute of it and I am enjoying all of the candy!! :)

Matthew with his favorite cousin, Kennedy!

The paper...

2008-10-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

So Matthew's latest is that he loves the Sports page of the newspaper. Now that we are living with my parents, in the morning when he gets up he has to go and see Papa and read the paper with him to see the hockey players. He is a little bit of a freak! But it is pretty funny. This morning we were rushing so he didn't have time to read with Papa but he still found time to "read" it while eating his breakfast. As you can imagine, Matthew will be a hockey player for Halloween tonight! I will post more pics this weekend! So far things are going well with my parents. They haven't given us the boot yet! I think they are enjoying having Matthew around! They aren't here much, always on the go and so are we. So it is working out quite nice. They leave on Wed. for a 2 week Cabo vacation :( Lucky dogs! So we will be home along. I'm sure they are anxious for the break! :)

Here he is showing me the hockey players, he said that HE was the goalie pictured on the front page of the sports section... maybe someday!?

This was yesterday afternoon, he was sitting there all by himself and I tried to sneak up on him and he got mad at me. So cute! He also thinks that it is fun to ride his scooter when he wakes up. Not for long though. Brrr!

And one more just because! :) Happy Halloween!!

Moving...

2008-10-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

So sorry that I have been absent! We are finally moved into my parents and settled. It has been a bit of an adjustment for Matthew. He was sick all weekend with a fever and a little cold. My mom had him all day on Friday and kept him overnight while Ben and I packed and moved stuff over to their house. Matthew was definitely out of sorts and freaked out when my sister and her kids came to my parents on Saturday morning while we were moving the last of our stuff. He was super territorial and was not being nice to his cousins... lots of crying. Then he came down with a fever on Sunday. So it was a LONG stressful weekend. Last night he was up in the middle of the night for an hour and a half. Unfortunately, I think it will just take him some time to get used to all of this change. But Ben and I are settled and are also getting used to having roommates. I'm sure it is a huge adjustment for my parents as well, so much for enjoying retirement! HA! They leave for Mexico in a few weeks and I think they will be happy to have 2 weeks of peace and quiet. My mom has been cooking up a storm and I think that we have all gained at least 5 pounds with her awesome meals and treats! Every night is a great dinner and awesome dessert! We are getting on a schedule where I have to cook on Wed and Thurs and she will cook on Monday and Tuesday and we will wing it for the rest of the week. It truly is weird to be living with my parents again! But it is kid of fun! AND did I mention my DVR withdrawal?? Mom and Dad have 2 big screen TVs, (which is so fun), HD cable and all that good stuff but no DVR. I am sorry to say that I have to choose between Brother & Sister and Army Wives, this week Army Wives lost... I'm sorry girls! It has been tough, but I am doing OK! :) HAHA!It is actually a good thing. I am realizing how addicted to TV I was... SO pathetic! We don't have cable in our room yet either! Now that we are settled here, we have to get back to the condo and do some major cleaning for Ben's mom. That will be our project this weekend! Fun stuff!

Anyway, I have no pictures to post as of now. I will post some later this week. I haven't gotten my laptop hooked up to the internet, another project for me to deal with! :) Hope everyone is well!!

Happy Birthday and Apple Picking!

2008-10-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

We had another fun, but very eventful, weekend! Friday night we hit up the apple orchard with the Ehmkes. There is a really small one with a petting zoo in Hastings. It is never super busy but it's really cute! We go there every year! So fun! I added some pics below. Then we spent all day Saturday packing up and moving boxes to storage which was quite challenging with a 2 year old! We finally sent him to MeeMee and Papa's for a nap and got lots done! We took 2 big trips out to the storage place. I feel much better than I did about this move. I think we are pretty organized! This Saturday we will move the rest and be out of the condo and into my parents! UGH! After a long day of moving, we took Ben's mom out for her b-day dinner! Tomorrow is her actual birthday. We went to Macaroni Grill with Ash and Jordan and the kids and then back to have cake! It was a great night!

My mom, Stacy, Kristin, Mary and I used to get together to make apple pies every fall. We haven't done it for awhile but when we were at the orchard on Friday, Kristin and I decided we should do it this year. So we loaded up on apples and made 13 pies today!! It was really fun! We each had a little station and made an assembly line! We had one for dessert and it was quite good! I didn't take any pics though :(

So I am wiped!!! But back to work tomorrow!!

Here is Grandma Jackie with Matthew and Kennedy and the cake! :)
Matthew chowing on an apple... how about the view behind him!!

Here is Matthew chucking apples! Had to take a picture before reprimanding him :) Heehee!

Posing for mommy!

Matthew thinks that he needs to hold Lukey riding in the wagon. He likes to hold him, like he's a baby... Luke actually weighs more than him! HA! :)

Update on living situation...

2008-10-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

For those of you that do not know... we will be moving next weekend! I wish I could say that we bought a great new house but that isn't the case. My parents are being nice enough to let us shack up with them for awhile. Ben's mom will be renting our condo and eventually she will buy it from us. In the meantime we will be paying off debt and saving for a house! Thankfully my parents have lots of room, so hopefully we can stay out of their way! So that is the latest from us!

I'm a single mom...

2008-10-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

My hubby left me for Vegas! Isn't that terrible? Thankfully Ben RARELY travels for work. Except for today... he went to a glass convention in Las Vegas... sounds like fun, huh? He is only gone until Tuesday, but we miss him already. He left this afternoon and gets home LATE on Tuesday night. So we won't see him until Wednesday. It is so weird, but I can count on one hand (maybe 2) the number of nights we have been apart... I don't like it when he is gone! I do miss him and can't wait for him to come home!

We had a great weekend! Friday night we didn't do a thing, just hung out at home and rented Mad Money, with Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes. It was OK, but kind of dumb! Then on Saturday, Matthew and Ben went with my dad to store the boat for the winter... how depressing! UGH! While they were gone, I packed up a bunch of Matthew's toys that he doesn't play with and cleaned the entire house! It is amazing what you can get done with no interruptions! Saturday night we celebrated sweet Charlie's first b-day and of course I forgot my camera! :( The Oakes (Ben's sister and her family) came up from Iowa for the party and stayed with us. It was a quick visit, but always fun to see them! And today, Ash and her fam and Jackie came over and I made brunch for everyone! I love having people over! And then we just enjoyed the dreary day and hung out! I am sick, so it was so nice to not do much! Then Ben left and Matthew and I napped and headed over to MeeMee and Papas for dinner with Michael, Mary and the kids! And here I am, ready to crawl into bed at 8:15!

One more exciting thing!! Grace had another gymnastics meet and this was a qualifier for state and... SHE QUALIFIED!! We are so proud of her! She is a little star!! This was only her 2nd meet EVER! The first one was not a qualifier but her scores would have qualified! So she is going to state in Dec!! YAY Gracie girl!! :) I will take some pics at her next meet and post them... they don't allow flash photography so maybe I will add in a video clip!?

Anyway, hope all of you are well! XOXO
Sarah

Another post!

2008-10-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

I know, 2 posts in one day! WOW! I thought that I had already done a post on this but I was dreaming! Anyway, last Sunday my bro in law Kyle turned 40! Kristin had a party for him on Saturday night. We had so much fun! it's always good to see their friends! Below are some pics from a fun night! Ben was with me but I have no pics of him :( Sorry honey!

Here is the b-day boy with GDM DOMA shirt! Gotta love the GDM! Mary made it for him.

Me and my mommy!Me and my sissy!

Mike and Kim

Me, Mary and Kim

The GDM and his pretty wife Krissy!

Good times had by all!

Visit to the zoo

2008-10-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

So the zoo is our favorite place to meet people for "playdates"! Today we met (some of) my old team from Target and their kiddos! Cindy was our boss and Lisa, Leigh and I worked under her! It was so good to see them all! When I started on that team I wasn't married and hadn't even met Ben! So lots have changed for all of us!! Cindy has 2 kids, Leigh and I both have one and Lisa just had a baby this summer! The weather was great and bears were active! They are so funny! You can see one of them right by the glass! CRAZY! The kids loved it!

Izzy (Cindy's little girl) and Matthew were eating all of Jordyn's (Leigh's little girl) fishies! She was so sweet to share and didn't complain once! :) What a sweetie! Check out Matthew stuffing his face... that's my boy!

And of course I have to show you all Matthew's NEW, slightly used hockey skates! They are the real deal, little Bauers! they are so stinkin' cute. We take them on and off at least 100 times every day! And of course we have to wear our helmet too!

Photo shoot...

2008-09-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

So we had our annual fall photo shoot with Mary! You will probably see these in our Christmas card! :) Here is a glimpse of the photos... She is so good! For those of you who don't know, I work for this photographer. She is my sister Kristin's neighbor and she is more like family than a boss! She is so sweet! Check out her website! www.maryburnsphotography.com

The Hockey Helmet!

2008-09-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

The hockey helmet was going to be our bribery to get Matthew to use the potty. Well so much for that! Daddy is a push over and got him a helmet while I was out with my bible study girls. He is definitely the softy! :) But anyway... Matthew is ecstatic! He really thinks he is a real hockey player. We ordered some little Bauer hockey skates for him because the skates he got from Connor literally fell apart. So these skates maybe the new bribery tool for the potty!?! :) The morning after Ben got him the helmet, he woke up and his first words to me were, "Where's my hockey helmet Mom?" So this is him, fresh out of bed in his skates and helmet. So cute! He didn't want me to take his picture though! He just wanted me to play hockey with him! I was not blessed athletic ability but let me tell you, Matthew thinks I have it!! HA!

So this morning he wanted Ben to play with him, he is obviously much better at it! But he made him wear a helmet too!! This was Matthew's old helmet... a hard hat!
On a side note, last night we had the sheer pleasure of hitting up Chuck E. Cheese! It was a first for Matthew! I haven't been since my nephew Connor had his party there when he was about 4! That was 9 years ago. It was much nicer and cleaner than I remembered! We went with Ash and Jordan and the kids. Here they are on one of the rides!

Another fun weekend

2008-09-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

Well we had another busy but fun weekend! Friday night was pretty boring... we didn't have anything planned so we ordered Chinese and then Ben went out with Carey. They don't get to see enough of each other, so it was good they could hang out! I was in bed by 9:30! :) Saturday was a crazy day! Ben helped his sister Ashley and Jordan move all day. Meanwhile, Matthew and I helped my mom shuffle kids to soccer. Mike was out of town so my mom and I brought Connor and Cullen to their games, one in Burnsville and one in Bloomington. It was a gorgeous day to be outside! And Matthew idolizes his cousins... he was in his glory by all the attention he got from them! He didn't get a nap so he was pretty tired on the car ride home. Today, we had another busy day! Grace had her very first gymnastics competition! She did SOOO great. She got first place in her age group and she was one of the highest scores overall too! She is 8 and she was competing against kids that were 12! She truly has a ton of natural talent! It was so fun to watch her! Matthew loved it too, but fell asleep on my lap... still tuckered from Saturday... no nap and being outside all day! YIKES! After the competition we hit up our church's fall festival! It was so fun! They had so much for the kids to do! Matthew loved the "train" ride! See the photos below :) Hope you all are well!

Matthew thinks it pretty cool to wear Connor's soccer cleats (did I spell that right?)

Here are some pics at the Fall Festival!

This was the petting zoo at the Fall Festival. Matthew's favorite book is Llama Llama Red Pajama, so I thought we should have a picture by the llama! Matthew was terrified of it because he was spitting! HA!

Golf Tournament

2008-09-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to say that the golf tournament was a complete hit! It was such a great, fun day!! It was fun to see all of our hard work pay off! The day itself was completely rainy and disgusting, so that was a bummer. This was our 6th annual tournament and the FIRST time that it rained the whole day. It has rained twice but always cleared up by the time that we head out to golf, just not this year. Everyone had a great attitude about it and only a few people gave up and quit golfing. It still amazes me how much goes into planning this event... it is like a wedding, but even better because we get to do it again next year and see almost all of our friends in one place together! This year was the first year that we are giving the proceeds to a family instead of it going towards research. I truly was so touched at how everyone who was there, came together and wanted to support this family who were complete strangers. We will definitely be doing this going forward... so if you know of a family who needs help, please let me know, next September will be here before we know it! After the tournament we always have to go out to a local bar or 2 and celebrate the success of the event. We hit up the Old Bank Bar, which is where Stacy and Mike for the very first time. They had a great band playing. They even played the song "Stacy's mom has got it going on". It was hilarious! My mom was there and loved it! I was so busy that I hardly had time for photos... I am so bummed, but here are a few.

Me and Ali!

Doing a shot with Mark (the recipient of the proceeds)...

PK, Kristin, Heidi and me

Kristin and I...

My mom, Mindy (Stacy's best friend) and Kristin...

Is it Saturday yet?

2008-09-10T20:31:00.001-07:00

This is one of the craziest weeks I have had in sooo long! I am so overwhelmed with life right now! So... yesterday i wake up at 4:00 AM and can't get back to sleep because of all there is to do! So I got up at 5:00 and started doing stuff for the golf tournament... then I went to work for Mary and had a busy day there, including the hand-off of 4 sets of proofs to get done by Thursday!! UGH! I got home and worked until 11:30pm on the proofs... got up this morning and worked at Michael's and then came home at 2pm and did more photography work along with some golf tournament stuff and here is it 10:30!! I am so thankful that my work week is done and I can focus on the FUN of the golf tournament. I just hope that we haven't missed anything in our preparations. I'm sure that we have... but I am certain that whatever it is... it won't ruin the day! Kristin and I are going to spend the day tomorrow working on the last minute details! Thanks to those of you who have helped us gather items for the silent auction, etc!! We'd be lost without you! OK, sorry to rant, but I feel much better now! :) I will post lots of fun pictures from the golf tournament next week!! Pray for SUN on Saturday!!!

Skating in September?

2008-09-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

So Matthew is ready for winter! I am NOT, though! He got out his hand-me-down skates from his big cousin Connor! Connor is 13 and Matthew ADORES him! He gave Matthew his first pair of skates... they are SOOO cute! Matthew has been wearing them NON-STOP! It's so funny! He loves to walk around in them! I wonder what it will be like once he hits the ice...probably not so great! Here are a few pics and a video of his first encounter with the skates! Sorry you will have to turn your head, I didn't realize I couldn't rotate the video! Duh! Live and learn!

First Day of Daycare...

2008-09-03T18:48:00.001-07:00

Well Matthew had his very first day of daycare in his 2 1/2 years of life! He did SOOO good! I had a much harder time than he did! He didn't even cry when I dropped him off! I was so proud of him. He had a great day and said he wanted to go back so I take that as a GREAT sign! He was so wound up when he got home... so happy after a fun day with Val and the kids! There are 2 little boys that are his age so it is perfect! I feel so much better! :) It was a great ending to a terrible day! I started out the day by locking my keys in the house! Long story... but someone was able to let me in. So I drop off Matthew and forget the contact sheet for Val that has all of our phone numbers, etc for emergencies, so after dropping him off I had to run back home and then back to her house. Needless to say, my work day started much later than I wanted to. Plus I was so worried about little Matthew all day... for no reason! All in all, glad the first day is over and that Matthew loved it!

Weekend in Iowa

2008-08-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Well it was a very exciting weekend for the Schwieger family! We spent the week in Iowa with Ben's family! Ben and the guys had their Fantasy Football Draft on Saturday night. We went down on Thursday night and were able to hang out Friday and part of Saturday before the guys left for the draft in Missouri! We had a great time! Friday night we took the kids to "Moonlight Bowling" where they turned the lights off and had a black light. It was cute! The kids spent more time in the arcade than bowling! Oh well, we had fun! Saturday we hung out and the guys left at noon. The moms put the kids down for naps and spent the afternoon working on our tans! Then brought the kids out for dinner... we were outnumbered... 5 kids to 4 adults! It went surprisingly well! The kids were so good! Then Sunday the guys came home around 11:30 and we headed back for MN! It was a fun weekend but it went by too quick!! Of course, I wouldn't leave you with out some photos! :) Check them out below!

This is a play area at one of their malls! I wish we had this here!! Check out the action shot of Matthew leaping off the log! What a coordinated boy! :)
Carson and Matthew crawling across the log...

Friday night bowling... how CUTE are those shoes?! He looks like such a big boy! UGH! I can't believe my baby is 2 1/2 already! Time goes too fast! I think that is why I take so many pictures! I want to remember EVERY minute of him!! I love him to pieces!!!!

Matthew loves popsicles but because I am freak, I make him take his shirt off so we don't stain it! I know, I know, he is a little boy but I like him to remain clean! :)

My b-day/cabin

2008-08-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

I had a great 31st b-day! We spent the entire weekend at the cabin! It was GORGEOUS!! We couldn't have asked for better weather! On Friday, my actual b-day, Ben and I left Matthew with my parents and went to the Port for dinner, which is a restaurant in the St. James Hotel in Red Wing. We had a great dinner and then went out with Mike Egan and his friend Kim, for some cocktails! It was a prefect night. On Saturday, we took the boat over to the Pickle Factory in Pepin, WI and had lunch with Mike and the boys and my parents... going there is one of my FAVORITE things to do while at the cabin! Saturday was a very exciting day, Matthew decided that he wanted to go tubing with his cousins and ME! He was pretty cute! He lasted about 5 minutes and then had enough. There is a photo below... On Saturday night, Mike made us go out AGAIN with him and Kim came too! This time my bro, Michael joined us, I had a little too much fun and definitely paid for it later! :) On Sunday, the whole Wise clan came down to celebrate my b-day and sweet little Griffins too! He and I share a b-day! It was so much fun! Now I am spending this week recovering! :) Tomorrow we are off to Iowa to visit Ben's sister and her fam! We are really looking forward to it! We always have so much fun with them! Ash and Jordan and kids are coming too and Jackie is already there! Good times! Below are some pics from the b-day weekend! Hope you all are well!!

Matthew's first tubing experience!

Happy Birthday to me! :)

Also, last week we had photos taken of the whole Wise clan! Thought I would share one of the photos!

Baby ?? for Oopie

2008-08-14T13:54:00.001-07:00

So one of my very best friends Oopie, otherwise known as Ali Forbes is having a baby! She is due in January and I could not be happier! She and her hubby Michael are going to be the very best parents ever! :) She had her ultrasound today and everything is A-OK!! Which is such great news! They are going to keep the sex a surprise! :) YAY for babies! So many of our friends are prego! It kind of makes me want another one! Maybe soon? We just need another bedroom! Maybe we could convert the closet???

Hope everyone is well! We are off to the cabin tomorrow for a long weekend! I can't wait!!! It is my absolute FAVORITE place to be!

Thomas the Train...

2008-08-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Well we have been waiting months for Thomas and he finally came! It was kind a joke but Matthew had a great time! The train ride was about 20 minutes and the AC went out 1/2 way through it. I'm sure we will talk about it for years to come! Below are a few photos from the day! We went with Ashley and Jordan and the kids and also some of our friends that we met through ECFE :)

Matthew and Kennedy enjoying the "lego" Thomas the Train...

Here we are on the train ride! There was a little girl behind us who screamed for the entire train ride, which added to the experience :)

Home at last!

2008-08-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I am happy to say that we are home and back into our normal routine! We had so much fun with little Lukey but I have to admit, it was pretty tiring chasing after a baby. Plus little Lukey starts his day at about 5:30 or 6!!! We realized how good we have it with little Matthew. He is at such an easy age and he likes to sleep until 8! I do miss little Lukey though! We are going for a visit tomorrow :) Below are some things that we did while we had Lukey!

Here we are at the zoo watching the dolphin show. Sitting for 20 minutes was a little too long for Luke! But it is Matthew's favorite thing at the zoo!

Matthew was teaching Lukey to shoot some hoops!

Ben's sister and her family came over to hang out with us one day... so Matthew and Kennedy had to ride the scooters... so cute!
Ava came back to us on Friday afternoon so on Saturday we decided it would be best to get out of the house! We went to the Washington County Fair! They had a petting zoo... it was SO cute! Here are the kids checking out the bunnies!

Matthew wasn't too sure about petting the animals and needed to be held at first...

But then he was pretty daring and did it all on his own! My baby!!
Have I mentioned how much I LOVE summer!?? I am really dreading the winter! We have soooo much fun in the summer! It seems like there is just so much more to do when it is nice out!!

CRAZY WEEK!!!

2008-07-29T18:12:00.001-07:00

Well my sister Kristin and her hubby went to Whistler (Canada) for the week, so Ben and I moved into their house to watch Lukey and Ava! :) (Logan and Mitty are in WI with Kyle's parents) It has been very fun! My parents ended up taking Ava to the cabin for the weekend which was so great! Matthew and Ava are so much like siblings... they love each other so much but they fight like you wouldn't believe! So it has been much more quiet with little Ava gone. My mom came back on Monday with Ava so I could work and stayed the night on Monday... it was SOOO chaotic! But my parents left tonight and took Ava with them for the remainder of the week. So we have only really had Lukey! He is so incredibly cute and such a good boy! But he is on the move! We don't get much down time! They get back on Saturday so we have a few more days to go!

Last weekend was Rivertown Days in Hastings so here are a few pics! The parade went right past Michael and Mary's so we had great seats!! Here is Matthew with my mom!

And here are the kids watching the action! We had brunch at the country club before the parade with Connor and Cullen and my parents... Matthew loves it there because he can go out and watch the golfers!

Weekend in Lake City at the Willows...

2008-07-15T05:34:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Lake City but not at the cabin, which was really weird! My mom had her 45th year class reunion! Can you believe that? So she and my dad were staying at the Willows... you can see it behind my mom and I in the picture below. They ended up getting a 2 bedroom condo and invited us down on Satuday! It was great! The weather was GORGEOUS! My dad was golfing with some of my mom's classmates (he graduated the year before her so he knows all the guys) so my mom, Ben, Matthew and I went to Oak Center to this really cute shop and then just hung out at the condo. They went to the reunion that night and Ben and I took Matthew for a walk to grab dinner. It was so nice and relaxing! Sunday we got up and drove down through Wisconsin to Prescott to Muddy Waters which is right on the river. I love weekends!!!!

Matthew had a great time throwing rocks into the river! I think he would have stayed there all day if we would have let him.

Blowing in the wind!

July 4, 2008 at the cabin

2008-07-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun at the cabin for the 4th! The party was a blast and everyone had a great time! Again, it is hard to get back in the swing of normal life! "Cabin life" is WAYYY better and so much more fun!! Below are Matthew and Kennedy just maxin' and relaxin'!

Here are some of us girls... Jaci, Ann, Mary, Mary and ME! This is literally the ONLY photo of me from the 4th :)

Here are a bunch of the kids with fireworks... no fingers were lost! WE had a great view of fireworks, there were at least 4 different displays that we saw from the beach!

Another memorable day at the cabin! I have so many great memories here! The cabin was built by my grandparents when my dad was 4 or 5 years old, so I have grown up here and I think that makes it even better. It is so fun to watch Matthew explore and he loves it as much as we do! We are very lucky!!