Please Pray!

This morning, Tim received a call for a job interview tomorrow

- at 3:30

It is a local business with a large pay upgrade.
He is very excited about this opportunity!
Please pray for the Lord's will for him.
Thank You!

Update On Our Silliness

James now knows all of the animal sounds, and if we throw in a tricky one (like, "What does a giraffe say?") he'll answer 'Moooo'!

Peter and James are playing trains together, all of a sudden Peter breaks out with . . .
"Dad . . . I think we have a sleepy little boy here!!!"

We all l have colds now, so the medicine is constantly flowing out of our cabinet.
Mom: Do you know when the last time you had medicine was?
Peter: I think it was Friday, or something.

Mom: PETER! Stand by the door. . . I'm tired of telling you!!
Peter: Stop, Mom . . you are freaking me out!

James has FINALLY learned when to say 'Thank You' and when to say 'Please'! A HUGE milestone for him!

Peter: I'm going to color a picture for Michaela's mom
James: Maa
Peter: NO. . .not OUR mom, Michaela's mom
James: MAAAAA
Peter: NOO, Baby Boy - it's for MICHAELA'S MOM!!!!

New Bed - New Position

The boys are officially in the same room!!!
They have bunk-beds, now, and Pete couldn't be more excited to sleep on the TOP BUNK! He's been talking about it for months! James gets to sleep on the bottom bunk, surrounded with pillows and guard rails.
The first night was interesting, trying to keep James in bed . . it took about an hour. Tim and I didn't hear anything after that, so we both assumed that he was still tucked in and sleeping. We woke to find James like this . . . . .






apparently he got out in the middle of the night and either couldn't find his way back, so this was the closest thing he could come up with, or he really enjoys this new position.

Play Day!

Today we had a play day with two little friends. My friend, Erin, is finishing up a cook book (wow!) and she needed some quiet time, so we got to watch her two boys for a couple hours. We had a total blast of fun!
Her oldest is close in age to Peter and her youngest one is a couple months older than James - so they all have a ton of fun when they all get to play together.
The kids wanted something to eat - right off the bat . . .so, we started our day with

a snack and some Wonder Pets!

The boys wanted to play with Trains all day, so that's exactly what they did. Boys are SO different than girls. Their energy levels are out of this world and they really need stimulated throughout the day . .so a large train track in the middle of the Living Room was the perfect solution! (apparently!)

Erin brought us all lunch from City Barbeque - or as my dad calls it; the 'Biker Bar'! It was awesome good!
After lunch, we parted ways for nap time and then met up at a local park. This was the first time my boys and I had been to this park. And, it was nice to know of another one that isn't too far away!

They had a dinosaur teeter-totter . . . a favorite of the boys!

The ducks at this park live by the motto, 'No guts, no glory' . . they would walk right up to you without even thinking twice. The boys loved it!
If you look really closely, you can see a Mommy duck and her little babies walking behind her.


The weather held out nicely and we were all able to enjoy the day outside . perfect!!

Final Day of Vaca

Well, we leave today - to head back home . . .the LONG, LONG journey home.

Here's some pictures of the boys in our 'Living Room' area in our hotel room. They loved to sit on this couch and watch cartoons. We had a lot of fun at this place!

Vacation ~ Day 5

Today was the saddest part of our 'vacation': Uncle Mike's funeral service.
This was the first service that I have been to, of a non-believer. It was sad and depressing. There was no hope. No joy. No Heavenly future for this young man.
I have been to many funerals in my life, and even though it is still a very sad event - there was a difference in everyone's grieving. When you know that the person who's life you are celebrating - was in God's hands, a child of the King - a living Servant of Christ - the service is beautiful. Full of hope. Full of Eternal Life. Full of love and celebration. There was none present today.
After the service, Tim and I realized more clearly - that it doesn't matter how well they do in school or how many sports they excel in or how many friends they have. If they know the love of Christ, in their heart, that is all that matters. Tim and I know that the future of our boys is in God's hands, and that He - and He alone - knows what they will become and who they will be when they are older. It is our God-given responsibility to help to train them in God's Word, to enrich their little lives in His Love. It's a large responsibility, but we are more than please to do so - for His service.


After the service, we all headed to Austin (about a two hour drive) to spend the remainder of the evening with David's brothers. One of the brothers (who's house we were going to) has a sheep farm. For those of you who know James well - his FAVORITE animal of ALL TIME is his 'Baa-Baa'! He owns so many of them. He has a Baa-Baa pillow, he has a Baa-Baa that he sleeps with, he has finger puppet Baa-Baa's . . . and the list goes on. He just about passed out from excitement when I showed him the hundreds of 'Baa-Baa's around the farm. He thought he was in Baa-Baa Heaven! We had a lot of fun - but, accidentally - forgot the camera for this momentous occasion. (Oops!)
Since it was such a long way away, the ride home seemed forever and ever. . both kids (and Grandma and Grandpa) fell asleep. Nighty-night!

Vacation ~ Day 4

Jams, on his first 'ride' - at Mall of America



Peter joins in on the fun.


























Peter's first REAL rollercoaster!













Both the boys had a blast at the Mall of America! James got to get out of the stroller and play in Lego Land! They let the kids got to make their very own race car with the legos and then race them down a couple tracks. It was a lot of fun seeing them play with their cars.








We enjoyed a couple of snacks and I got my favorite ice coffee from Caribou (for those who may not know - I am a TOTAL Caribou snob! - and they are all over Minnesota!) You could tell that the economy is really starting to effect the Mall of America. The were all understaffed and they had removed all of the food venders from the park area. It wasn't like Tim and I had remembered it, but it was still a lot of fun!




We planned on meeting David's brother (Jim) tonight, for dinner. He and his family flew in this morning and were anxious to see everyone (and the boys!). We all had a wonderful dinner - at one of our favorite places - Bonfire!! It was DELICIOUS! It was a little challenging to keep the boys entertained. . . but the waitress was so awesome - she brought the boys their meals before our meals (so that they had something to do/eat!) and then, while we were all eating our own meals - she brought out Ice Cream Sundae's for the boys - with all the toppings in a basket for them to make their own sundae! They LOVED IT! We got out of there pretty late - so we knew that the boys would be nice and tired out from today's activities.
Tomorrow is the funeral for David's youngest brother - so it was nice to have some 'fun' distractions today, for all of us - especially Grandpa.

Vacation ~ Day 3

This morning we had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel (both the kids ate really well!) and we decided that today was going to be 'Como'-day. Como Park started as a conservatory and has since bloomed into a multifunctional Amusement Park and Animal Zoo. Tim and I came here on our Honeymoon, and we have made it a family tradition to visit here every time we travel to Minnesota. It just awesome!

Peter - right away found Fireman shoes and 'jumped into them'.







Here's Pete and Mommy. . in front of his favorite animal of all time!

















. . more giraffes












. . goofy look'n animal. . .










cute penguins







My favorite picture of Pete-


















Amazed at this one. . . James - seeing the ducks swimming in their pong yells out "Quack, Quack!!!" (which means 'duck'!) . . . and the more I thought about it, the more I was amazed that he even knew what they were. In ALL of James' books, they show duck's yellow and fluffy. . . these ducks weren't even close to being either one of those things, yet he still knew what they were. That 'wowed' me! What a smarty!




Silly Petee-Fay!











We thought - for SURE - that Peter was going to be horrified on these rides, but he did so well! We were VERY proud of him!






















































And, of course - Peter's favorite thing of all time - DINOSAUR BONES! (this was a new thing they added since last year . . we were super siked that they had this, though!)
















Grandma came with us, and watched James so that Tim and I could walk Peter around the park and watch him ride rides. She also gave us some 'fun money', so we got to enjoy some Cheese Curds ('carnival style' - good and greasy!), Peter got dinosaur nuggets and Tim enjoyed his favorite, mini-donuts, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. It was enough to wear us all out, but, unfortunately, the boys decided not to take a nap - I just didn't get it! We wore them out thin and STILL no nap?!? We knew this would make an interested evening for us! (Grandpa stayed back at the hotel preparing for his brother's eulogy for tomorrow's funeral)
We had a couple errands to run before dinner, so after we were done, we met up with the grandparents, Pat and Catherine for dinner at (one of our all-time favorite places to eat) Bakers Square!! With a name like that - I bet you could guess what they are well-known for! THEIR PIES! They must have 15 different kinds of pies. Some are seasonal, but they always have a couple of specialty pies too! I had the lemon creme pie . . boy, was it creamy and delicious! Tim had a warm fruit pie and the boys didn't finish their dinner, so they did not get to have any dessert. (Got to stick to the rules, even on vacation - bending them is for the grandparents :0)
We ate late tonight, so we were pretty tuckered by the time we got back to the hotel. Thankfully, the boys were finally tired and bothersome, so we all went right to sleep tonight!
- Ready for a new day tomorrow!-

Vacation ~ Day 2

This morning was an early morning for us. We were up by 6:15, dressed, fed and out of the door by 7:00. Patrick's graduation was at 9:00 this morning, and it was a 'first come, first serve' seating, so we needed to be there at least an hour early. We ended up getting great seats and an excellent parking spot in the garage.

The Auditorium:

Patrick walking:

Pat stopped at our row, to shake Peter's hand. . . you would've thought that Peter just met the President of the United States (well, at least last year's President) He shouted "Patrick shook my HAND!!!" Pat (and the other graduates around him) got a good laugh from that.

The proud Mother and Wife:

James - of course - was completely calm, collected and respectful during the entire ceremony. . . oh, wait, did I mention that sarcasm is my second language of choice??? After the first three trips out to the front hallway, Tim and I decided that he wasn't going to get any better, so I took him outside - where other parents were with their 2 year olds - and let him run around and get that last bit of energy out. As I was walking James down the flight of concrete steps, I accidentally ram my *hurt* finger into a metal poll, sliding down the railing. That hurts SO bad!!! I was grinding my teeth and trying not to scream, but I knew that it would start to bleed again after that. So, after surrendering all of our assets for the parking fee (a WHOPPING $7.00!!!! - I couldn't believe it! We were there for an hour and a half!) . .I asked the parking guy if we needed to take out a small loan, or if he just wanted us to hand over our 401K now . . .not very godly of me, I know
-we headed back to the hotel (I re-bandaged my finger), then we all went swimming, took a bath and got all dressed up for Pat's Celebration Dinner - at a FABULOUS upscale pub.



The kids were very good during dinner and ended everything on a good note tonight.

Vacation ~ Day 1

Today was Patrick's graduation party, so we got a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast to start out our first morning of vacation. The sun was out and shining bright today . . a perfect day for an outdoor open house. We got to meet many of Patrick's childhood friends, some of whom we knew. Peter and James took their afternoon nap at Pat's house and woke up to a house full of little boys. There must have been at least 8 of them, all between the ages of 9 months to 6 yrs old. They all went outside and kicked balls, threw rocks, played with a mini-set of bulldozers (using a 'generous' portion of Pats grass as 'mulch' - sorry Pat!) and blew bubbles. They had a blast!
bonus: none of us got sunburnt!

Patrick's Graduation Open House:

Many of Pat's friends, neighbors and family came to congratulate him at his home on Sunday.



It was a fabulous party with amazing food - Catherine did a fantastic job!!

The beautiful cake:

James, chilling in the shade:

Patrick and his graduation gift, from his lovely wife, Catherine:

{a weekend fishing trip to catch fresh walleye (super yummy!)}

Patrick and his new Masters Degree Plaque:

After his party, we all headed back to the hotel, to change (into warmer clothes, it gets down to the 40's still, in MN, at night) and headed back to Pat and Catherine's house for some Jimmy John subs. The kids started to get restless, so we had to end the night a little early to get them to bed at a decent time. But, we sure had fun today!