It's been over a year

since we've taken a family photo. A co-worker of mine started her own photography business last year, and has always said she'd be willing to take a few shots for us whenever we were ready. We finally made time and I'm happy we did. Thank you Alyssa!

She's 1

On August 11th, Nora hit the big 0-1.

She's running, climbing, ranking in the 77th percentile for height, and 55th for weight. She's starting to stretch up just like her brother and Dad. On a girly note, her hair is long enough for a mini-ponytail.
Happy Birthday, our dear sweet Nora!

Family reunion

My sister, Stephanie, and her husband Mike and their little girl, Hava, came to ND for a visit all the way from Boston. Their time here went way too fast. Our niece, Hava, has changed so much since we saw her last winter. She is so smart and although she is only 2, she talks like she is 5.

The weekend was full of fun. All fun.


Nora was a little apprehensive about baths until she took one with her cous, Hava.

Now she loves them.

Gpa Steve and Gma Debi got a hotel room one evening, so we got our fill of swimming and water slides.

Here's Will chillin' in the room after the pool.





Smiley Will

Q: How many grandparents does it take to get the spaghetti off a 1-yr old?
A: 2

The Gma Debi Salon Spa was open for pedi's for the girls.


Uncle Josh invented a game called push-n-slide rather slip-n-slide. All the kids flocked to him all night.



A horse with a pacifyer, happens all the time.

They survived a rainy train ride at the Children's Museum.


Poor Nora was not happy about riding with the guys.

Here's Hava working on some bubbles.

We celebrated Nora's first birthday while everyone was here. We also celebrated her Aunt Stephanie's b-day too.






Uncle Mike and the kiddos catching up on PBS Kids.



It was a perfect vacation! Thank you for making the trip to Fargo.

Who's watching these children?

I've been too busy to make a blog post, but doing what? Clearly not watching my curious kids.

Here's Nora trying to find a snack.

And a shot of Gus after he dug into wet firewood the night after we had a mini campfire in our backyard.

Straight to the bath with ya!

The lighter side of parenting

There's no doubt that being a mom or a dad has it challenges, but we've found that there's just as many hilarious moments that make you laugh so hard that you forget about the crappy parts.

Now that Nora can walk, and if she sees that a toilet lid has been left open, she bee-lines for the bathroom. She loves throwing stuff right in. (Yes, I scrubbed her hands after this one. It was actually planned. I knew her strategy, so I turned on the light, opened the toilet, and sat with the camera, just waiting. About 20 seconds later, she burst through the door with her book that she obviously didn't really like.)


Gus is especially hilarious lately. I've been writing down some of his quotes because I'm sure someday I simply won't believe he argued with me on certain points, or that he said what he said. Like how's this for funny - today at breakfast he exclaimed, "Mom, you're embarrassing. I love you." Why, thanks Gus. And I really didn't think I was embarrassing yet. I mean, there's more to come there I'm sure.

He also argued with me the other night after bedtime stories, to the point of tears, because he is convinced that I won't let him choose who he wants to marry someday, and also, by the way, 3 is old enough to be married in his opinion. He worked himself into a delirium on this topic, let me tell you. When I finally gave in and said, "OK fine, Gus, let's figure this out. Who do you want to marry?", he replied, "you, Mommy" (obviously, ha), to which I had to reply, "sorry bud, can't, I'm already married to Daddy." He argued, "not fair! But then I'll marry Grandma Ethel." So pretty cute, huh, Grandma? And then I told him we'll have to see, and he'll ask need to ask Grandma Ethel next time he sees her. He seemed fine with that, and eventually he fell to sleep. All in all, even with the tears, the situation was adorable and I had to hold back my laughter.

But my favorite Gus moment as of lately was Friday, garbage day. We usually get home early on Friday's just after the garbage crew has picked up the trash. It's become a tradition for me to send Gus down to the end of the driveway to fetch the empty receptical and drag it back into the garage. He likes it. It's his first real chore and he's good at it.

This Friday was no different. He took off bouncing down the driveway to fetch the trash can, grabbed the handle, tipped it up on the wheels and started the trek up the driveway. After about 5 seconds he yelled, "Hey mom, this is heavy, I can't do this." And being the sympathetic mom I am, I chirped, "Oh come on Gus, you can do it. It will make your muscles stronger. You can, come on." He went about 5 more steps, and started swaying from left to right, and said again, "but this hurts my muscles mom, I can't do it." Again, I pushed him to 'keep going bud, you are strong I know you can do it, yadda yadda..'. So he kept going, made it into the garage, and when he did, he let out a loud, "phew, that was tough!" but didn't seem too upset. About 5 mins later I went out to position the can in the corner, and when I grabbed it, I realized it was still FULL of garbage. Like, all of our garbage. I mean, heavy. Haaaa! I apologized to him and explained that the garbage crew must be late today. He was proud, and he should have been. This really could have been considered a toddler strong-man competition.

Here's a shot of the smiling strong-man, beaming from ear-to-ear with no clue that his muscles will be sore the next day.

Oh, and who doesn't love a good water gun fight? This is definitely Gus' thing lately, so if you come to visit and end up in our backyard, you've been warned.

And finally, this series of shots started as cute mini-photo shoot, but ended funny.

Nora was swimming with Gus, then decided to head into the sandbox to explore. Here she is thinking this sandbox is pretty neat.


Hm, now what's this sand you guys talk about? Mmm, very nice texture, I like.

Let me just do the signature taste..uh...um

no. No, please tell me I did not just do that..


Uggh I DID! Nasty, people! Get this grit out of my mouth. My delicate gums cannot handle this.

somebody get me my sippy asap.


I stopped taking photos promptly after this shot and rinsed out her lil mouth. She forgot about it like 5 seconds later but really was not impressed at the time.

Ahh, gotta love these moments. Believe me, it's not always like this but when it is, we've got to laugh. Also, please don't call social services on me, the kids are safe. I mean, aside from child labor laws with the heavy garbage can thing, everything else is just one of those things that happen to kids (right?). I'm behind them at all times, and they are always OK!

Crawling is for babies

(And I'll stop posting videos now and return to what I'm comfortable with - photos.)

If you think it, you can do it

No, this blog post isn't my attempt to start a motivational speaking career, it's just an observation. Within 12 hours of Gus attending the RedHawks baseball game, he has used the power of positive thinking to become a baseball legend in his own mind. I mean, his new-found power is legit (no steroids or doping), it's just a pure obsession with the sport. His imagination and swing has really come to life. It's cracking Ross and I up!