Isaac Mugshots

 

 

 

 

At the birth

 

 

 

See, dad was there for the birth, okay, maybe not in the literal sense, more the electronic version of dad...

Brand New Baby Isaac

 

 

 

Isaac was born at 3:48am, Thursday, October 1st. He was 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20.75 inches long. Mom had been in labor since Tuesday afternoon and arrived at the hospital just after midnight on Thursday. This was our first completely natural childbirth - no pitocin or epidural. Dad was there via skype. In attendance were Christine, Deb, Grandma Audrey and Jess. Carolyn was there in spirit, but didn't quite get that, "we are at the hospital", meant that there would be a baby here in 3 hours.

Fancy Food

Didn't these ladies do a wonderful job with the food. There were sandwiches in fun shapes, too.

Fancy Nancy Birthday Party

Elena had a wonderfully Fancy 7th Birthday Party hosted by Christine, Carolyn, Deb, Jess, and Grandma's Audrey and Laura. There were 12 little princesses in attendance - which was a full house....

Check out some of the Fancy Party Hostesses...

That's our little Lucy in the middle, I don't think the crown came off for 3 days.

The servers decided that everything should be done in courses, mostly because they were trying to eat up time. Apparently everything went a little more swiftly than planned and there was some fear that they would have 12 princesses with nothing to do near the end of the party. I left the hospital a day early so that I could at least see the party. 2 day old Isaac and I made a few quick appearances.

Isaac and Lucy 1 day old...

4th of July

Spent with the Carlsons/Chans

Mother's Day

Planting flowers for Carolyn's new house.

Harvest Fest 2009

Harvest Fest at Malone Elementary. Always a good time...

2 Weeks 2 Go

2 Weeks 2 Go!

This was a "trying" photo shoot. Good thing the photographer came at such a great price....Thanks Christine! The girls were not into getting their pictures taken, they were more interested in playing at the beach.

1st Grade Fun

Christine went to the Fall Harvest Fest with us on Friday and took some great pictures of Elena's 1st Grade Fun.

There are 32 kids in Elena's class due to a shortage of class space, but there are 2 full-time teachers.

Awww, isn't she cute!

This must be a self portrait...

Our Guest Room

Warning, this is what may happen to you if you enter the guest room. May I suggest using the bed rather than the chair for a good nights sleep?

First Grade!

Didn't we just start Kindergarten? Where has the year gone? She's an old pro now...

Going to Africa?

Well, they have had enough of home. They have packed up their babies and are headed to Africa.

Elena's New Look!

Elena is very proud of her new glasses.

Showing their Army Spirit

I think that one's for you dad...

I LOVE my sister....

Painting Rocks at Grandmas

Grandma's sure know how to have a good time. I am so glad my mom is willing to let the girls paint, because it means that I can let that life experience slip a bit.

Notice the delinquent rock painter on the side of the pic...

Hydrangeas

The best flower purchase this year was undoubtably the hydrangeas I bought at Gertens. I got the smallest size for around $17 and they have flourished in our sandy soil out front. I may just have to get a few more of these next year...

Pics at Home

I thought Kevin would enjoy a few pictures of our house (you know, the one we have lived in for 15 mos, but he has only vacationed here for about 10 weeks). This first one is some of the flowers we have on our back deck. I love the morning glories, and Lucy knows it, she keeps picking the blooms.... Ignore the dead Hibiscus plant, but notice the pretty flowers surounding it, I figured it would make a good trellis for the morning glories.

In the background here you can see our vegtable garden.

Kinda hard to pick out green against green, but the veggies I have successfully grown so far includes: 25+ tomato plants, 1 pepper plant, several zucchini, several acorn squash, peas, beans, pumpkins, carrots, lettuce, and cucumbers.

This is part of the front garden. I don't remember what the coral blooms are, but they sure are pretty (I put those in last year). The yellow bloom is our first gladiolus of the year.

30 weeks pregnant

Kevin has been begging for recent pictures of us. Here is a picture from a birthday party we went to today. Black just doesn't seem to be slimming on me anymore...

Camping in Hayward, WI

We spent the night at the Hayward KOA for the cousins birthday. Here is Lucy, Abby, Elena, and Maya.

This is the playground with the pool just beyond, and a jumping surface beyond that.

The campsites were mighty "cozy".

An email from a friend

Kevin sent this in response to an email about how hot it has been in MN. His mom was thinking that we have it pretty good compared to his weather forcast of highs in the 120's and lows in the 90's. This was what he had to say:

Funny. I just got back from a run. 0500 is prime time to run, as it's cool, but the sun is up so we can see fine. It is also funny that I have actually gone outside in the middle of the night (I'm currently on night shift for another week) and it feels cool, almost chilly at 85! Not looking forward to being a day walker again... And yes, Plant life is one of the things I miss. You can't see much more than the occasional weed and all of about 3 trees anywehere!

I got a good repsonse to one of my previous emails a few days ago. This is from one of my groomsmen, Enjoy:

This past weekend I biked the MS 150, a ride from Duluth to the Twin Cities. As I was biking, some ATVs passed on a sandy trail next to me. Initially, I thought about how sore I was from biking 90 miles in two days, how I was out in the 80 degree heat while I was biking, and how the dust the ATVs kicked up was annoying. I was ready to give up and take the 90 miles as a good accomplishment so I could go home and see my wife and my dog.

Then I remembered you, Dave, Ben, and the rest over there in Iraq. I thought about how 80 degrees is a cold day, how dust kicked up by a vehicle is the norm, not the exception, and how in addition to your normal tech type jobs, you have physical work to do too. I thought about how you're not doing this for two days out of the year, but day in and day out. As I kept biking there were people on the side of the road cheering and telling us what a good job we were doing. When I crossed the finish line, there were hundreds of people cheering about how I had done a great thing. All I had done was bike 75 miles a day for two days. I have people telling me at work how impressed they are that I finished it, and I think of my friends in Iraq.

I know I haven't been replying to all of your emails, but I read every one of them, and I think about you over there, separated from your family, friends, and ten week old house. I appreciate all that you are doing for us, and I'm glad to hear that you are doing well. You are the ones that we should be cheering, not some computer tech that decides to get off his ass for two days and pedal a bike. Please feel free to share this with anyone else that you see from our unit.

Nick