Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Eli found this page of recipes in his National Geographic Kids magazine, and he really wanted to make the Mexican Sundae. We told him that we could have a Cinco De Mayo party with Craig and Jen and make all of the recipes. However, Joel wasn't too sure about the chicken with chocolate sauce, so I made chicken enchiladas and mexi-rice instead with molletes as appetizers. We had the party a day early because Eli and Katelynn are going to Bible School starting tonight.

The kids loved their Mexican sundaes. I'm not sure how much of the other stuff they ate, but the adults liked it.

Knife River Flint Found

Kluver--call for details.

Afternoon bike ride

We made the 2 1/2 mile trip to Craig and Jen's today. Noah was ready to be done with the stroller after a mile, but luckily his fight didn't last too long. He was good the rest of the time. Eli informed me that he was "running out of steam" during the last half mile, but he thought he was ready to ride back after supper. I decided it would be easier to let Craig drive us home. Thanks for the yummy food Craig and Jen (and the ride home)!!!

When Daddy is gone...

egg pancakes by the window
fun dip at 9:00am

chuck e cheeses

Today, the boys and I met up with my friends, Tonya and Erin and Erin's two kids, first at Erin's house, and then we moved to Chuck E Cheese's. Eli LOVED Jack and Ella's house and is requesting that Daddy would get to go next time. His favorite thing at Chuck E Cheese's was the tunnel. Thanks girls for coming over tonight. I had the best time!!!!! PS I owe you still

cheap entertainment

Craig, Austin and Katelynn met us at dinoland in the mall today. The special ordered size 8 extra wide sandals which will probably be too small by July that we went to the mall to pick up; not so cheap.

creamed spinach

For some strange reason, Eli has been asking for spinach (never had it before), so yesterday Joel found a recipe for creamed spinach. The two of them went to the grocery store to get everything they needed, and Joel went to work in the kitchen. Eli took one big bite, and I really wish I would've taken another picture as he was trying to choke it down. He made some of the best faces I've ever seen, and when he finally got the bite down, he said he liked it. Of course he did not want anymore. For the record, the rest of us liked it.

This is Stupid

View from the the living room window and out the front door, respectively (after I just shoveled 4 foot snowdrifts). Some of you may think this is a humorous post, but the patriarch of this family is not very happy about this situation whatsoever. Forecast for Ankeny, IA: 56* and sunny. Enough said.

The boys' favorite part of the house

2 weeks later, and we are still loving the laundry chute. A close second would be the huge crawl space. Where I'm sure someone will get hurt very soon!

Eli's question today

"Mom, when will I get to watch Playhouse Disney?' I guess we're waiting until Joel gets his new TV before we get any type of cable (could be a long wait). I spent 2 hours at the gym on Monday night just so I could watch Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill.

For Jennifer

I still have a lot of boxes to empty before I can post pictures of the house. This is the playroom. Originally, this was going to be Eli's room, but when we moved in, he picked the other room. I think it worked out better anyway because this room is much bigger, and it is further away from Joel's office.
Eventhough I have unpacking to do, we are ready for visitors! Noah was pretty sure that Gracie and Feffer (Jennifer) were coming to the park with us today, and Eli is requesting a sleepover from Jake. Eli also made a sad comment last night about how long it would take Jennifer to drive to our house. Thanks for the fun cards Jennifer, Grace and Grandma Cathy! The boys have been having fun opening their mail!

Let the tour of parks begin!

yellow fish bridge
Craig and I have decided that we are going to spend the summer going to every park in the area. Yesterday he met us at a park near our houses, and today Eli was requesting the park with a yellow fish that is a bridge. He must've noticed it when we were driving around looking at houses one day because we've never been to this one before. Katelynn got to stay home from daycare today, so she could come with us.

Day #7 brings....

a trip to urgent care. I was putting one more pile of laundry away before putting Noah to bed, and the boys ran past me into Noah's room (they were running from a zombie). Noah tripped and hit his forehead on the corner of one of the legs of his crib. The good news... #1 -Auntie Jen got us to urgent care at 8:27 (they close at 8:30), so we didn't have to go to the ER. #2 -We got our new insurance cards in the mail yesterday. #3- Although the doctor thought he might have to do stitches because it was such a wide cut, he decided that glue would do the trick. #4- We got there at 8:30 and were home before 9:30. #5- Noah was so good- almost like he knows we could be there again in the future. #6- no blood on the new carpet.

We're here!

Moving went pretty smoothly (I can say that because I didn't lift anything). We are missing a few items that got left behind when we ran out of room in the truck and left in a hurry Thursday morning. We did however miss the snowstorm, so that was good! Thanks to everyone who helped on both ends. Eli is now ready to move to Texas!

cousins

Noah loves Austin!!!

my boys

Jake, Luke and Eli

I thought I better do one more post before I lose my computer for a few days. My friend Kelly came down on Saturday to help me pack. We did a lot more talking than packing (at least I did), but we (Kelly) still got a lot done. Thanks Kel! Today I said goodbye to my boys. I'm going to miss them a lot, but it still hasn't really hit me that I won't see them tomorrow!!!! Thanks for pizza Chad and Erica.

Grandma Day

I have been spoiled over the past 4 years by Cathy coming over every week so I can get out to run some errands. For our last "Grandma Day", she treated the boys to a morning at Recess. They had sooooo much fun! Thanks Grandma Cathy. These boys are going to miss you!!!!!!

Make room on the couch Uncle Craig and Uncle Brent!

We've got another calculator junkie on our hands. Eli spent half the weekend adding numbers with the calculator on Joel's phone.

the first sign of spring

Last week Joel pointed out a robin to Eli and said "seeing a robin is the first sign of spring". Tonight as we were heading outside, Eli was looking at the birds and said, "Mom I just saw the 70th sign of spring".

Easter weekend

What do two 4 year old boys do after they declare "not hungry" during dinner and the popcorn comes out???? They decide eating a little dinner to get some popcorn isn't such a bad idea. I heated up a plate of food and told them to eat a few bites before they could eat the popcorn. They sat their bottoms on the counter and ate all of it. Eli and I made a trip to Krista's over the weekend so we could finally meet Brady. We got there on Thursday night just as it started to snow. We didn't do much over the weekend, but with 4 little boys we managed to keep busy and have fun. After church yesterday, we went to my Grandma's for Easter dinner. The kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt, and then we left around 2:00. I wanted to get home before Noah went to bed.

birthday party

We had Eli's birthday party at Grandma Cathy's tonight. Eli chose frogs and lizards as a theme and wanted steak to eat. When I asked him last night if he was excited about having steak for his birthday dinner he suggested that we bring our steak sauce because sometimes Grandma and Jennifer don't have steak sauce. The meal was delicious, and Grandma had steak sauce. When it came time to blow out the candles, Eli insisted that he have all the frog candles that came in the package. Therefore, he got to blow out 6 candles instead of 4. In the spirit of the frogs and lizard theme party, I pulled out this old frog t-shirt for Noah to wear. Eli was pretty sure he was going to wear the shirt instead of Noah, so I suggested that we take a trip to Kohls to look for a different frog shirt. We found one, but Eli picked a bug shirt instead. (Noah ate this whole plate of cake and ice cream and washed it down with Eli's sprite). Thanks for the fun party Grandma!!!!

Thanks Aunt Jennifer...

for the yummy birthday doughnuts!

Birthday Boy

Today was Eli's 4th birthday; I can't believe it! We had a little snack party with Luke, Jake and Chase today, and he will have another party on Saturday at Grandma Cathy's. We were going to take him out to eat tonight, but he decided that we should just pick up food and bring it home so we could keep playing outside. What did he pick for his birthday dinner???? Long John Silvers of course. I went to Arby's for the rest of us. Luckily he told Grandma that steak is his favorite food, so we have that to look forward to on Saturday.

Finally

some spring weather!

WHAT A TREAT!

Grandma Cathy came armed with ice cream, cones, and sprinkles today!

Wave the White Flag

So here we are in day 4 of "daddy in charge". You can see by the picture that I have lost all control. Noah seemingly decided to wear just socks and shoes of his choosing, while foregoing the rest of the ensemble. The toy of choice is a case of water where they hide cars in the hole and take them out. Loads of fun. I have even reinstated the gate on the stairs to keep them contained to one level. Wonderful Aunt Jennifer volunteered to take the boys for the morning and saved what's left of my sanity. Full-time parenting is much more exhausting than I ever imagined. Thankfully mommy is feeling much better and will resume control tomorrow.

Surgery Recovery is Hard Work

This is Noah after a hard day of helping mommy recover from surgery. Having daddy take care of him must be mentally exhausting. On a side note, I got to attend my first story time and was clueless. Nothing like having 3 year olds tell you how things work and where to go!!! All is going well with our patient. With all of our surgeries over the last couple years, I have decided that I am the Six-Million Dollar Man and Heidi is the Bionic Woman. Hopefully we are done for awhile. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

surgery went well

Thanks Mom and Dad for the flowers. As you can see, I am not the only one enjoying them. Thank you Cathy and Jennifer for your help today, and thank you husband for taking such good care of the boys and me.

I was right!

After talking to Krista yesterday, it sounded like the baby's name would be Dylan. I see my mom has Brady written on these pictures that she sent.

Baby Gundberg

It's boy number 3 for Krista and Brent. I'm not going to write his name yet because knowing Krista and Brent it will change tomorrow. Everyone is doing well, and I really wish I could be there! CONGRATS!!!

Crazy weekend

Friday- I had a doctor's appointment at 9:00 and found out I get to have my gall bladder removed on Thursday. We left our house around 11:00am, fed the kids in the car, stopped at Krista's to pick up Zach and Drew, dropped them off with my mom, and got to Craig and Jen's around 6:00pm (poor Noah didn't get out of his carseat once). Saturday- Joel and I met with our realtor and looked at several houses. Of course the only one we really liked was one we had seen many months ago and never got out of our heads (it was also the most expensive). We spent Saturday night swimming at a hotel with my whole family (minus Brent and Krista who were supposed to be having a baby which never happened). Eli had a blast!!! Sunday- We decided to put an offer on the house, so we went to meet with the realtor at 11:15 thinking we'd be on the road in time for kids to nap. WRONG!!! We spent 5 hours in the realtor's office doing something that should've taken an hour tops. We finally got on the road at 4:15pm. The original plan was to leave Monday, but we decided to leave Sunday to avoid a snowstorm. After driving through terrible fog and only stopping for food once and gas once, we finally got home at 11:45 pm. Noah did get out of the carseat once but it was only long enough to get a diaper change and pajamas. We are very thankful for our good little car riders and very scared, nervous, and excited about our new house and new location. I am also excited about my new baby niece or nephew who should be here sometime tomorrow as Krista is being induced in the morning. I'm sad that I will not be able to go visit this weekend!!!!!

not much new here

Noah still likes to be naked (I found him like this at 7:15 this morning). Then, when we came downstairs he was very upset that we couldn't find basketball on TV.

oh Noah!

So, Noah was MIA for a little while the other night. I knew he had gone upstairs, but I waited a while before I went to see what he was up to. I found him laying in our bed with Joel's glasses on just watching a little TV.

birthday party fun

The boys had fun on the treasure hunt at Tyler's party last night. Well- Eli had fun. Noah got distracted by Don's bike on the porch during clue #2 and then was very mad that we didn't let him stay on the porch and play with it.

"A Hat"

Someone thought he was hilarious during breakfast this morning!

REINACTED FOR BLOGGING PURPOSES

I just happened to be upstairs and heard this little voice saying, "mommy, mommy", and this is how I found Eli. I let him take a book to bed at naptime which obviously fell on the floor somehow ( I can't imagine). Anyway, Eli will not get out of his bed, so he was stuck like this trying to get his book. My dad thinks this invisible fence around beds is great for kids!!!!

Auntie Krista

My sister made a last minute decision to ride down with a friend who had a wedding here Friday night. She was under strict rules from her husband not to go into labor (due on the 20th). I haven't heard from her yet, but I'm thinking she must've made it back home! We went and saw the movie Juno which I really liked. It made me laugh; it made me cry.... my favorite things in a movie. It made Krista nervous that she was going to go into labor.