Kate's First Birthday Party!

I know. Every parent says it. But it's true.

It's so hard to believe that this little girl is already one year old. This year has flown by. Kate has especially seemed a lot older in these recent days. It could be because she decided - at her birthday party - to start walking. And now she can't get enough of it. The girl loves to walk.

Kate's party was just after Thanksgiving - and she seemed to have a great time. :)

She had her first taste of birthday cake...

and it was...

...delicious.

How very blessed we are - to have her in our family.

PSA

So the short story is we lost all the photos we took on our camera over the last month - which was especially upsetting because that included Kate's first birthday party photos. :( So sad. Thankfully, Kate's Grandpas had enough photos to make up for almost everything we lost.

What did we learn? #1. It's very helpful to have a Genius for a friend. #2. If you own a digital camera, you should format your memory card every few weeks.

This is your Public Service Announcement.

Halloween

A strawberry and a stegosaurus.

Not a dinosaur. A stegosaurus.

Apparently all the costumes in the stores are just dinosaurs because, according to Sam, a stegosaurus has "plates on his back and spikes on his tail." Got it?

Bursting with Goodness

As my lovely friend Jenny posted yesterday, "when one is loved and surrounded by earthly dearests needing love, life can seem near bursting with goodness."

That is how we feel these days. We are so blessed to have this little family that we have. These two kids make our lives burst with goodness. That is for sure.

Adam and Becca Get Married

Last weekend, my brother married Becca in a really fun weekend-long celebration up north near Brainerd. It was a great weekend. So great, in face, that one of the attendees went home and wrote a song about it!

(Listen to it by clicking here.)

Anyway, here are some photos from that wonderful weekend:

(I need to point out: If you know Adam, isn't it just perfect here how they are sandwiching the American flag? - love it!)

Sam was the official ring bearer, but he officially chickened out at the last minute so I had to walk with him down the aisle. Oh well. It was a good excuse to get him dressed up. The best part for him, though, was riding on the chartered bus they had for guests to take to the reception. He was in heaven with his buddies.

One thing that was very apparent at Adam and Becca's wedding was how extremely important their friends are to both of them. We think that bodes well for their marriage. :)

We are thrilled to have Becca in our family - at last!

And to top it all off, she makes Adam very happy, and that makes us very happy.

So Happy Together

It's so fun to watch these two actually start to play together. I'm choosing to believe it is just a taste of their upcoming lifelong sibling bliss.

Like a bowling ball on a broomstick

This little girl amazes me more and more every day...

But after I snapped this photo, I realized the thing that I should be most amazed by is her ability to hold up her big ole head with that tiny little neck. Incredible.

2 Men in a Tree

I looked out my front window this afternoon and this is what I saw.

My son in a tree. About 6 feet up...so I knew he didn't get there on his own.

And he was loving it up there.

Then a few minutes later I looked out again and saw this.

You might recognize that big man by the Dr. Pepper can held in his hand.

And then I saw him pass said beverage down to the little man in the tree.

Nice.

These Days With Kate

She is growing up so fast - not quite close to walking, but definitely getting everywhere she wants to go.

Kavanaugh's

Labor Day this year was spent, once again, in Brainerd at Kavanaugh's resort. This has come to be one of our favorite end caps to summer. However, this year was rough since Kate was sick with something - some kind of wicked teething/cold/fever combination.

Just take a look at her - this was how pitiful she looked most of the weekend.

We were really happy though to spend time with family.

The best part, for Sam, is driving Grandpa's boat. It's a job that he takes very seriously.

And I got such a kick out of watching him drive and seeing the loons swim for their lives.

The kids were exhausted from the fun long weekend.

The other day we decided we would take the training wheels off of Sam's bike. Mind you, he's not even 3 1/2 years old - but he had been asking for a while. I think he really believed he could do it without the training wheels.

So - off they went.

And off Sam went.

And it was "very tippy" (as Sam later explained)

So they came back

And back on went the training wheels.

But I think he did ride it for a couple seconds without training wheels - and we were his witnesses.

Hilarious.

I always peek in on the kids before I go to bed. The other night, this is how Sam was sleeping...

Love this baby

This little girl is 9 months old today.

I can't believe how fast she seems to be growing up. I guess when you are also distracted by a 3 year old, time flies. She is crawling everywhere and is very close to pulling herself up and standing on her own. She's really not talking much at all (it is pretty hard to get a word in with her brother's constantly running narrative) other than saying "da-da" all the time. She's just as sweet as can be - a perfect baby...sometimes I seriously wonder if she's a real angel. And she always seems to be very happy! This wide-open mouth "smile" she has when she's excited can be a real problem on morning jogs in the baby jogger now that we have a sudden outbreak of flying grasshoppers.