We took our first trip up north with both boys. Eli is always a great car rider and Noah did pretty well too. We stayed at Krista's both Friday and Saturday night. On Friday night Craig, Jen and Katelynn plus my parents were there. We played cards and did a lot of talking. We were better at talking than playing cards, so the boys got mad at us and quit. Saturday morning we took the three oldest kids to big vehicle day in Alexandria. They loved running in the big semi. Zach was mad because the vehicles weren't moving. Eli said his favorite part was the candy that they got in one of the cars.

spelling with Eli

Here's Eli practicing his writing. He can't make any letters, but he can spell: mom, dad, dog, cat, Eli, Luke, Jake, and stop. He loves to do letter sounds. He'll be just like his dad- reading before he's potty trained!!! Yes, he is still in his pajamas, and yes, he did sleep with that hat on.

Chuck E. Cheese's

Joel's aunt and uncle from Arizona are in town visiting and decided to treat everyone to a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's. Eli enjoyed his first experience with his cousins at Chuck E. Cheese, and I realized that I am too old to be crawling in the tubes!

Walking with a toddler

On Monday night, Eli and I walked (15 minutes) to the park to feed the ducks (another 15 minutes and another blog entry). Smart mommy gave Eli a sucker to have in the stroller. Not so smart mommy didn't have anything for the way back. This is when Eli decided he should walk with me. Let me tell you about walking with a toddler. Its the best experience in the world- if you have a couple of hours to spare, and you're not doing it as a form of exercise. We stopped to pick up sticks, pick leaves, throw leaves, find "my favorite leaf", look at rocks (at several different places), splash in mud puddles, read church signs, look at flowers, touch pine needles, and probably a few more things that I have failed to mention. Eli did eventually get back into the stroller, and we stopped at Jake's house to play for a few minutes, but our 45 minute round trip to the park turned into a 2 hour field trip.

6 weeks old

Making faces with daddy
-pictures taken 9/2

Its 1:45, and everyone is sleeping. Not too bad for my first day with a full house! I guess Eli found his hat somewhere. He wasn't wearing it when I checked on him 15 minutes ago.

Labor Day Weekend

For the first time since Joel and I have been together, we didn't go to the lake for Labor Day Weekend. We're making the trip in a couple of weeks for a family gathering, so we decided to stay home. It sure didn't feel like lake weather this weekend, so I didn't feel too bad. We kept ourselves busy by shopping, going out to eat, cleaning and going to the zoo. Tomorrow it's back to the real world for all of us.
The picture is from the zoo. Eli claimed that his favorite animal was the lion, but he seemed more excited about chipmunks running around than anything else!

Eli's sleep habits

Eli is a sleeping king! It took him a while to get the hang of it, but once he did, we were in for a treat. He takes all of these things to nap with and falls asleep within 15 minutes. His items change weekly, but he always picks some sort of toy and some books. This week, he has carried these plastic ice cream cones with him wherever he goes. He added the lion today. The three books have been the same for the past few days too. He looks at each of them, and then puts them in a pile before he rolls over. Night time is a different story. He will usually talk, sing, count, etc... for a good hour before he falls asleep. On Monday night I actually went to bed at 10:15. I stopped in his room to say goodnight (he had been in bed since 8:45), and he looked at me and said, "I want to do something." I said, "What do you want to do?" He said, "I want to do something else." I laughed and told him it was time to go to sleep. He has never tried getting out of his bed. One night he was playing with his blankie, and it fell on the floor. He wouldn't even get off the bed to get it. When he wakes up in the morning (which is rarely before 7:30), he just talks until we wake up and go in his room. One day last week I woke up to him saying, "Let me out!".

This is nap #2 not taken in the swing today, and he actually did a 5 1/2 hour stretch during the night last night. Maybe I will get to sleep again someday!

Check out the outfit!

Susy thinks Noah looks like a Schwantz....must be those eyes!!
Isn't his outfit funny??? It came from Joel's Canada office. What's not so funny is what happenend the first night that he wore it. After a middle of the night feeding and diaper change, Noah was SCREAMING. I walked with him for a minute, and he acted like he was going back to sleep. However, I just knew something was wrong. He had never gotten that upset. My first thought was that a piece of my hair was wrapped around his toe. (I've always been scared of that happening. I read a story about it when Eli was born, and I would always check his toes while I was putting on his pj's). I took Noah downstairs and undressed him. There was something around his toe. It wasn't my hair; it was a string from his sleeper. SCARY!!!

A weekend of firsts

Noah laughed out loud today. I know it may be too early, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was. Joel even got it on video tape because of course I was at the grocery store. Noah was in the swing, and he was cooing and smiling. Joel started video taping and thats when it happened. Maybe he was just cooing while he was smiling, but it sure sounded like a laugh!


After watching Monsters Inc. non-stop for 4 days, Joel and I decided to take Eli to his first movie. Noah stayed with aunt Jennifer, and we took cousin Grace with us to see Barnyard yesterday afternoon. I don't know how much the kids got out of the movie, but they were both very good. We asked Eli if he would like to go to the movie theater again sometime and of course he said "yes". He was ready to go to the movie theater first thing this morning!!!!!

Eli took his first shower last night. He was pretty excited about that too!

1 month old

Can you believe that I couldn't find 5 minutes yesterday to get a good picture? I only took one, and it was terrible. Noah was either sleeping or I was trying to get him to sleep all day. I think it was mostly me TRYING to get him to sleep. Joel took these last night while I was giving Eli a bath. What a good daddy!

JUST SAY NO!

So, Joel had his first "talk" with Eli last night. He said, "Eli, don't do drugs." Eli said, "No, I'm not doing the drums".

Had to add one more!

Noah- 3 weeks and 2 days old!

photo shoot #2

Noah was much more patient with me yesterday. I even got Eli to cooperate with a little help from a bowl of m&m's. As you can see, Noah has started getting his baby acne. He also had scratches all over his face. I think his face looked a little better today, so I thought about taking some more pictures. Then I decided that the poor kids had suffered enough.

For My Godmother

My aunt Connie sent an email wondering why I'm not in any photos, so I thought I'd find one for her. This was me at 7:00 this morning. Noah ate at 2:30 and 5:30. Then, he was crying at 6:45, so I brought him into bed with me. These are the moments that Joel decides to capture.

Pictures from Adventureland

On Monday, Joel's aunt Carol, Uncle Dale, Cousin Jeff, his wife Kim, and their three kids came to visit from Wisconsin. Adding our family and Jennifer, Rich, and their four kids made a housefull at Grandma's every night. The days were filled with activities and the evenings ended with dinner at Grandma's and Matt trying to get everyone to play croquet. (Joel and I decided that we could get used to someone cooking dinner for us every night!)
Eli got to go to the Science Center with everyone on Tuesday while I stayed home with Noah. On Wednesday afternoon we girls and Noah headed to the mall. Yesterday Grandma stayed with Noah, so Eli and I could go to Adventureland with the rest of the crew. We were there from 11:30-5:00, and we had a lot of fun! This morning as I was wetting Eli's hair down during breakfast he said, "Where are we going today?" He had to settle for a trip to Blockbuster.
Thanks Cathy for opening your house to everyone! It was a fun week!

Two weeks old

I took this picture of Noah on Saturday. I was trying to get a cute one for a birth announcement, but he wasn't too thrilled about his photo shoot. I thought I'd wait and try again sometime this week. We had his two week check-up yesterday. He weighs 8lbs. 20z. and is doing well. The doctor thinks he may have a little reflux, so we had to prop up the crib matress. He seemed to sleep better last night. I know I did!

Move Over Tiger!

This is Eli's favorite thing to do outside! Its an expensive hobby even at this age. We've already gone through two sets of golf clubs this summer. I would suggest not buying the $5 sets at Walmart. Even with duct tape (which I'm pretty sure my friend Andy from high school said would fix anything), these clubs do not stay together.


**Our sign worked! Jen and Craig got circled at the Twins game!

Go Twins!

Craig and Jen got to our house around 11:30 on Friday night. Joel and I were busy making a "Circle Me Bert" sign for them to take to the Twins game in Kansas City tonight. We were their first stop on their annual baseball trip. They are heading to Atlanta before returning to Moorhead, and they are going to 5 baseball games. Oh- and they are sneaking in a wedding in Milwaukee. They really look forward to their trips every year. Craig probably doesn't even get home before he starts planning next year's adventure. I'm sure this is how everyone would like to spend their anniversaries! I'm just glad that it worked out that they could stop here!! Have a safe trip!