Santa came to visit

We had a fun Christmas party tonight... just for the kids! Santa even came to visit, and that was definitely the highlight of the night. Well, for most kids..... Henry was *terrified* of Santa. Poor guy!

3 year old fashion

Madeline is pretty independent, and I find it easier to just go with the flow in the mornings as we get ready for school rather than fighting with her over her outfit. This was her latest ensemble....

Christmas PJs

Christmas PJs + random stick pony + Christmas tree + cowgirl boots = a picture I can't resist to post.

Loving the snow!

Henry got such a kick out of his first sled ride of this winter season! Nathan took both kids out a week later when we actually got a good bit of snow. I think this will be the first year that Madeline will actually go on the sled, especially now that she sees Henry having so much fun. Good thing we asked for one for Christmas!

Christmas card photo shoot outtake

This is totally our life right now. Madeline happy one minute and a complete whiny baby the next. And Henry is happy because he has a graham cracker. Good for Henry - not good for photos. This may not be a "go" for the Christmas card, but it is 100% our life. And I love it!

Henry's favorite things

• Climbing
• Pointing
• Driving trucks (and saying 'vroom')
• Throwing balls
• Giving open-mouthed kisses
• Biting (uh-oh!)
• Developing new tricks (like "upside down Henry")
• Being with Daddy (his favorite person in the whole world!)

Madeline's favorite things

• Coloring and art projects
• Dressing up like a princess
• Disney princesses
• Having a "dance party"
• Singing her "new songs" (every song is new)
• Watching movies and The Backyardigans
• Reading books

Fun with friends at the Children's Museum!

There are some shananigans captured in these pictures, and not surprisingly it was the Knutson kids that were the instigators. Henry taught Finn the "let's put the grimy balls in our mouth" trick and Madeline was all about the face paint. It was great to get the kids together! (Our friend Sam was there, too.)

Sick little Henry

Our little babe has been sick, sick, sick. He had the norovirus last week and today he has pink eye. Poor guy. His eyes are all red and he's got a terribly runny nose. The good news is that he has hardly ever been sick before this, so I guess we should be grateful that this is his first real string of illnesses.

He had his 1 year appointment. He is 33" tall (97%) and weighed 25 lbs, 6 oz (80%). Everything checked out a-okay, which we continue to be grateful for. Now that he's one, we've cut down two daytime bottles, but he still has a morning bottle and an evening bottle before bed. We've also introduced whole milk during meal times, which he has either completely rejected or guzzled down depending on the day.

The only other *BIG* news is that Henry has officially taken his first steps! Nathan said he saw them last Friday, but I think I saw his first *real* balanced steps tonight. We've been playing "pass-the-Henry" between Daddy/Madeline on one end and Mommy on the other. Madeline is so proud of her little brother. It's pretty fun to all be excited about his first steps together. It'll be interesting to see how long before he ditches the crawl all together.

Hope all of you are keeping healthy and staying warm!

Henry's 1st birthday party

And the fun just doesn't stop around here.... on Saturday, we had Henry's first birthday party, complete with a hint of Masters of the Universe undertones, which included "He-Man is my homeboy" custom t-shirts, a He-Man cake, and a Castle Grayskull display. (P.S. if you ever want to get a rise out of Nathan, then just ask him how his various He-Man e-Bay bids went. He has unbelievable "luck.")

Henry was in such a great mood. Lucky for him, he had big sister Madeline nearby to take over unwrapping the gifts. He also was a great performer - completely digging into his blue angel food cake with absolutely no prompting or help. He had blue icing up to his elbows!

Thanks so much to all of our family for celebrating Henry's birthday with us and to our friends for the birthday wishes! What a fantastic year it has been for our family....

Halloween 2008

We had quite the entourage join us for trick-or-treating this year, and it was so much fun to have all of our family together for Halloween.

Henry was a puppy dog, Madeline was a kitty cat (who did her own make-up), and Landon was Horton the elephant.It was the first year that Madeline really "got it," and it was hilarious to see her literally run/run from house to house. It was tricky to get all of the prompts down - "trick or treat" then "thank you," especially when we got tired near the end. At one house, the man was saying you can take one more, then another, then another. After her third dip into the candy bowl, she asked "can I have one more?"












Lots of mediocre pictures here, but I challenge any of you to get a decent shot with two 1-year-olds and an independent 3-year-old.

Lots of visitors this weekend!

With Halloween and Henry's birthday party so close together, it was a good excuse for a long weekend with our family. Nathan's sister Laura was in town from Chicago, my mom and sister Amanda were in town from Indy, and my other sister Katie and nephew Landon were in town from Philadelphia.

Trying to get 3 kids to look at the camera at the same time is an impossible feat, so we didn't try too hard....

Henry turns 1 this week!

Our little guy is turning 1 on Wednesday! It's so cliche to say this, but it's amazing how quickly this year has gone by. I'm trying to remember the night that we swung by McDonald's at midnight to get fries on the way to the hospital -- it seems so long ago!

Just for fun, I thought I'd share a few pictures of him over this past year. Needless to say, Henry has blessed our lives in more ways than we can ever share and we are so in love with him. Happy birthday, Henry!!!

More fall fun

We had our first snow fall on Sunday. It's hard to believe that winter is around the corner.... We were able to go to the apple orchard again this past weekend - this time with Daddy and some friends. We're on a roll with the family pictures - two in one month is a miracle and here is the proof. (I didn't say they were *good* pictures. Just *family* pictures!)

We bought a 1/2 bushel of honey crisp apples for $16! They are so yummy, but we're swimming in apples. So, if anyone has a yummy apple recipe, then be sure to send it to me.

Madeline the photog

Pretty easy to figure out that Madeline needs her own kid-friendly camera for Christmas this year.

Trip to the fire station

What a great fall day! Our local fire station gives away pumpkins in the fall, so we thought it'd be fun to get a pumpkin for the kids and check out the fire trucks. Grandma Bev and Grandpa Bob also stopped by for most of the day, and it was fun to have them join us. We even met up with our friends Alicia and Nick. Madeline and Alicia were more than happy to pose for us on the fire trucks.

Not such a baby anymore

So we've updated you that Madeline has huge tights and doesn't listen at school. But "what about Henry?" you may be asking...

He's keeping busy by ripping down Madeline's pumpkins and crushing them in his vice-like grip. The sheer energy exertion it takes to do all of this is evident....












He likes pudding. mmm... pudding. And he likes to be held. It's almost like you can hear him say, "pick me up now, woman!"












He's sick of the being in jail all of the time. He's climbing over and into everything. And he's growing up way too fast!!

A perfect parenting moment.... or so I thought

The family made a quick trip to Sam's Club after dinner tonight, and we spent the time making up random imaginary stories. After receiving our 2nd note from Madeline's teacher in less than a week, I thought I'd try to weave in a lesson to my make-believe story. So, taking inspiration from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I told a story about a girl that visits the soap factory (to pick out a pretty smelling soap for her teacher to say "I'm sorry" for being such a naughty girl at school today)... And one of the rules of the soap factory is that you have to be a good listener and you aren't allowed to touch anything. But the naughty girl did touch a button --even though she wasn't supposed to-- and ended up getting caught in a giant bubble that floated her up and up. She only got down once she listened to her teachers in the factory. Right on the topic--listening. Good moral, right?

It was Madeline's turn next. She started out her story. "There once was a girl who visited a book factory... and there aren't any rules in this factory and you can touch anything you want to."

What am I going to do with this girl!?

PSA #2 - Strawberry shortcake

I have a ton of friends who have little girls, so I feel like it's my responsibility to provide a review (and warning perhaps?) of Strawberry Shortcake....

I grew up with Strawberry Shortcake, so when I saw that they revived the character, I wanted to buy some books for Madeline, too. Let me tell you, you will be "berry" excited to read these books again! Either something has changed or I don't remember the stories at all, but these books are a MOUTHFUL. All I need to do is let you know the list of characters to get a sense of the content:

• Strawberry Shortcake and her pets Pupcake and Custard
• Her little sister, Apple Dumplin'
• Orange Blossom and her pet butterfly Marmalade
• Ginger Snap
• Angel Cake and her pet cat Vanilla Icing
• Huckleberry Pie
• Honey Pie Pony
• Berry Fairies

and so on and so on.... Do they need this many characters in one series? Nathan has refused to read these books to her and saves them for Mommy to read. I don't mind as much, because Madeline likes the stories, but I agree that they are a pain to read!

PSA #1 - new photog in Minneapolis!

Please check out a new photographer Heather in the Minneapolis area who is a co-worker and great friend of mine. Here is information about her business in her own words....

We're specializing in natural light photography of children & families - portraits, candids, "lifestyle" type photos (no weddings, sorry). We are hoping to fill the gap in the market between cheap JCPenny pictures and photographers that will charge you your child's arm & leg for just a few prints. We plan to do it different than most photographers these days and at the end of the deal leave you with a CD of all of your digital files - you do the printing yourself, no paying marked-up print prices. And we're starting out very reasonably priced, so get it while it's good... :)

Website: http://www.sovaphoto.blogspot.com/

Free investment advice!

Here's a little retirement investment information:

If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49.00 left.

With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1, 000.

With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling refund, you would have had $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle. It's called the 401-Keg.

She's only 3 and it's starting already...

It happened today. Years before I thought it was going to come. We got our first "discipline note" from Madeline's teacher today. I love her independent spirit, but she's out of control!

I wanted to let you know that Madeline is having a hard time following directions today. When Ms. Quam or I asked her do something, she ignores us. We talked to her and let her know that her behavior is not okay and that an email would be sent home. Lunch is definitely going better than the morning so we are already seeing an improvement in her behavior. If you have any concerns please email me. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Ms.
DeMarte

Photo session

Madeline is in that weird stage where she is transitioning between sizes, so sometimes I have no idea what size to buy her. For tights, is she a 4-6 or a 7 to 10? So, a few nights ago, I had her quickly try on some new tights before we got her into the rest of her PJs. She looked so ridiculous with her nighttime diaper on and her huge tights, so I had to get her to ham it up for me. She loved to pose and then review the pic on the digital screen. What a goof ball!

Bottle transition?

Hard to believe that Henry will be 1 year old this month. He's been doing great. Still no walking nor are there any signs that he's interested in even trying, which is fine. He was a complete crab ass last week (teething again), but he's turned the corner and back to the happy little guy we love.

Looking ahead, I'm realizing that I need to catch up on the tricks to ween him from the bottle. All I remember with Madeline is that we cut out the daytime bottles, then the morning bottle, and the nighttime one was the last to go. But I forget the details. If you have any tips or tricks or advice, then please shoot me an e-mail or add a comment.

Minnetonka Apple Orchard

The kids and I met up with friends Emily, John, and their almost 1 y.o. daughter Abby for an afternoon at the apple orchard. I LOVE the fall, but we haven't ever really done an official trip to the apple orchard, so I was glad we had a chance to do it this past weekend. There was a ton for Madeline to do, and lots of cute photo ops with the kiddos.

At one point, Emily and I were chatting away and she stops and was wondering "where is Madeline?" I had seen her duck into this little house but didn't really worry about it. So, when Emily asked, I knew I had to get her. She was in the chicken coop!! I'm a terrible mom.