We're growing!

I started this blog shortly after Erica was born.  Then came Grady and his cute face began to appear in my (infrequent) posts.  We're going to have a few more faces to add in the not-so-distant future.  About a month ago Brian and I found out that we were expecting another baby.  This was the first time that there were no nervous feelings - only excitement and a feeling of content.  Of course we were excited when we found out we were expecting Erica and Grady, but there were the "how can we do this?" and "can we really be good at this?" kinds of feelings.  We found out about #3 and we weren't nervous because we have two awesome kids and we knew we could handle another.  Flash forward a few weeks and the nerves hit big time.  We went in for an early ultrasound and found that we were not expecting just Baby #3, but there's also going to be a Baby #4.  We are still in a state of shock!  We are definitely excited, but wow - FOUR??!!  That's DOUBLE what we have right now!  Yikes!  But we sure do make cute kids!

 Here's our ultrasound picture - Baby A and Baby B

They've grown since my last post...

Facebook has ruined my blogging.  I realize that not everyone has Facebook, but it is so much easier to put pictures on there.  I apologize for that, but here are a few pictures of my cuties!

Today Erica had her first day of preschool.  She was so excited!  She's riding the bus this year and thought it was great that she didn't need a "car seat, a booster, or a seatbelt!"  Grady is doing great and has turned into a very active little boy.  He loves cars, boats, trucks, airplanes and trains.  And his sister - he follows everything that she does.  We continue to feel incredibly blessed by these two amazing kids every single day.

Howdy!

A little bit of Vikings, some dressing up, weddings, our annual visit to the Pumpkin Patch and fun times with our very own cowboy and cowgirl! Fall is starting out with a bang!

Finally....a picture where we're ALL looking at the camera!

Grady dressing up as a friendly little lion

Erica has discovered my closet and loves to use my clothes for dress-up

We had a fun time at Jared and Christina's wedding. Erica LOVED being a flower girl!

We made another trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Every year the kids discover something new. It's always a fun time! The kids dressed as a cowgirl and a cowboy for Halloween. They loved trick-or-treating and eating the candy. Erica had a lot of fun handing out the candy. It was funny hearing her yell "You forgot to say thank you!" as the kids ran away. I guess we can be thankful she has learned some good manners! (No - we did not get a dog. This is the friendly neighborhood dog who very willingly posed for a picture with Erica. And no....we will not be getting a dog!) Erica's scary vampire teeth!

Grady doesn't have very many words, but he took out that gun and started yelling "bane bane!" He's the cutest cowboy I've ever seen!

Uh-oh!

I can't believe it's August already! Where has the summer gone?! I go back to work in about three weeks and the kids will go back to daycare full-time. It will be a tough adjustment, but we'll work it all out. I've had a lot of fun this summer seeing all the changes the kids are making. When the summer started, Grady was not walking or talking and Erica was very shy and sometimes seemed unsure of herself. Grady is now RUNNING everywhere and is saying a few words. His first word was "Erica" and has now added "uh-oh" to his short list. He likes to throw things down the stairs or tip things over on the floor and give us a cute, wide-eyed look and say "uh-oh" in the most adorable voice. "Shy" would no longer be one of my main words to describe Erica. She waves and starts conversations with anyone who walks by our house and is becoming quite popular in the neighborhood. She also has conqured the climbing wall on our swing set and I have to run to keep up with her on her bike. She's becoming quite the dare-devil, too!

The summer has had it's share of unexpected adventures. The main one being shortly after this photo was taken. Erica got her hair painted at the Barnesville community picnic. We washed it out later that night and Erica finally decided that I could put braids in her hair (I've been waiting FOREVER to do cute hair styles on my little girl!). I got done with a braid and heard Erica say "uh-oh." She stuck a rubber band up her nose! Then instead of blowing it out, she sucked it further in there! Four hours in the ER didn't get it out, but the ENT did her magic the next day! There have been no more objects up the nose since...and no more braids :(

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the summer.

Spaghetti is one of Grady's favorite (and messiest) foods...

We've enjoyed picnics in the back yard...

The deck is in progress (see photos below!)

Grady gives tons of big smiles everyday!Mom and I took a great mini-vacation to Duluth to celebrate her 55th and my 30th birthday.I love Erica's bright blue eyes!

And here is Grady helping Daddy with the deck! What a good looking pair!
(this is one of my new favorites of Grady - isn't he handsome!)

The kids just keep getting cuter and cuter! Hope I can keep the blog updated enough to show them off!

I know...I know...

Winter is done and Spring is here! I'm off for the summer and spending my days being a full-time mommy! So far we're having a blast and hopefully I can make more frequent updates to this blog now that I have some "free" time. So what have we been up to since the last update?? Well....

Grady turned one.....

And Erica turned three!

We discovered that Grady LOVES Cool Whip....

And Erica LOVES to play dress-up with Mom's clothes!And I ran the Fargo half marathon!!

I have more pictures to show you, but they'll just have to wait for the next update (soon - I promise!)

Snow Much Fun!

Just a quick update with a few new pictures. The weather was finally nice enough to venture out for a bit. Erica was brave enough to walk in the snow...Grady wasn't too excited about it.

What a handsome little guy...

And one beautiful little girl....

All was Merry and Bright...

I apologize. I've been terrible at keeping the blog updated. Any excuse I can think of is not good enough, but hopefully you forgive me anyway. Here are a few Christmas pictures...Erica had a great time this year and Grady kind of snoozed through it all.

Erica and I started a new tradition. We slept in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Erica loved it and whispered "Merry Christmas, Mommy" before she fell asleep. I woke up with a few kinks, but we made some great memories.

Erica was my little baker again. Here she is waiting for the cookies to get done.

Grady in his special Christmas 'jammies...

Santa's little helpers

Let the tearing begin!

Where to start...?

One of the many smiles.