Our big project

Well, we decided to organize and clean up the boys' play room a bit and decided to build a shelving unit/cabinet. So we bought the materials and went to work and together me and James built this baby. It was nice to do a project together again, we haven't done anything like this since finishing the trim on the windows this summer. The cabinet works wonderful for what we need and it makes more room in their playroom. Plus, we used to store our board games in a closet in Evan's room and we were able to move those out and into the part of the cabinet that has the doors. The kids seem to spend a lot more time down there now.

Sunday School Christmas Program

The two boys had their Christmas program at church on Dec. 16th. Phillip sang "Come let us adore him", and Douglas sang, "Jesus loves Me" in both English and Spanish and he also sang, "Ho-Ho-Hosana" It was a cute little program, seeing all those little ones up there. Evan got a little restless toward the end though. It's hard to believe that next year he will also be up on the stage. Where does the time go?

Santa Night

On December 13th, they had a santa night at Douglas' school that we brought the kids to. They had all sorts of different crafts the kids could do, games to play, cookie decorating and of course the chance to sit on santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. To which they received a candy cane. They had a fun time.

Halloween

Well, here is our little ones dressed up for trick-or-treating. Douglas as our Spiderman, Phillip our cute little pumpkin and Evan as our little bumblebee. We went out trick-or-treating for a little while then we went to our church where they had hotdogs, popcorn, nachos and lemonade and had a movie night. The boys had a good time.

Our news!

Sorry I forgot to mention in the other posts and this probably is nothing new to most of you but we are expecting blessing #4 in April. We are going to have a full house now:) God is good! He never gives us more then we can handle, right? ;)

Pumpkin Patch

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch. We had a beautiful fall day to go. We went through a corn maze, saw some animals and other fun stuff, took a wagon ride and picked out pumpkins. We had a nice family day.

Douglas learned many new things!

Douglas had a spring/summer of learning new things. This spring he learned how to read. Now he is really good at reading and he loves to do it. He learned how to ride a two wheel bike this summer, lost 2 teeth, learned how to blow bubbles with bubble gum, learned how to tie his shoes. He wanted to make sure he knew a lot of stuff before starting kindergarten, which he did start this fall. He turned 6 on Sept. 3rd and had his first day of school on Sept. 6th. He loves it! He has made a lot of new friends and he likes to keep busy all day. He is in school all day every day and likes it that way. He always comes home and tells us about all the fun stuff he did that day and everything he learned. It's wonderful that he enjoys it so much.

busy, busy, busy

Well, it has been along time since I have updated our blog. A couple of excuses are that our modem went on our computer, plus I couldn't get it to upload photos before it went and just that I have been busy. A lot has happened since the last one (a whole summer and fall worth). We had a fun summer. Douglas joined a t-ball team, The two older boys got to ride full size horses on the 4th of July. We also took a family vacation/camping trip up to Savanna Portage State Park. Then we took the boys to stay at my moms overnight while we went to the Grand Casino to stay for our anniversary. Then we went and spent the day at Paul Bunyan Amusement Park, where the kids had a blast and mom, dad and grandma had a pretty good time too. It was a fun week.

HE'S DONE!!!!!

Sorry it's been so long folks. But life has been busy. On May 11th James finally graduated from college with an Associates Degree Nursing (RN). On May 24th he took his State Board Exams in Sioux Falls, SD and passed. So he now has his RN license. He will be in the process of getting a job as an RN. James has worked so incredibly hard this past year, going to school full time and working as much as possible in between to support our family of 5. The Lord has blessed us so greatly through this whole process and we know that we could not have gotten through this year with out Him by our sides. We just continue to seek his guidence as to where to go from here. James has been considering letting go of his "side" job as an autopsy assistant. We will see what happens there. But now our time is spent on "catch-up" stuff. The stuff that has been put on hold while James has been in school. It's been wonderful to have him home more often.

Evan's 1 year appointment!

Evan had his one year appointment yesterday. He is now 23# 15 oz and 30 inches long. The Dr. said he is healthy. Poor little guy had to get three shots and blood drawn to check hemoglobin and lead levels. We were at the clinic for an hour and James was in school so it was just me and the three boys. They all behaved really well though.

Evan turns 1!!

Evan turned one year old on March 17th. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. He is able to stand for long periods of time but has not yet started to walk. I doubt it will be too much longer though. He has six teeth now. He loves to play with his two big brothers and they do very well playing with him. He is smart and makes the cutest faces, especially when he thinks you found something he did funny. He will try to recreate what he did. He is very good at mimicing other people. Douglas likes to see what he can get him to repeat. He adds a lot of fun to our family. I will have to add an entry after his doctors appt. with his current weight/height and such. His birthday lands on St. Patricks Day so for his cake we had a Leprachaun on it. Also, my aunt makes an individual chocolate cake for the first birthdays with "sticky" frosting on it. Well, when Douglas and Phillip had theirs on their first birthdays, they just dug right in, for Evan it was not so. He put his hand in the frosting and instead of eating it, he got upset because it was sticking to his hand. He tried to shake off the frosting onto the floor. After a little while I dug a little hole in the middle of the cake so he could see the cake beneath. After that he starting eating out of that hole and enjoyed himself. He got pretty messy.

Starting of the cake

At the finish of the cake :)

The two older boys missed their naps due to the party and this doesn't affect Douglas too much but Phillip was a different matter. Here is a picture of him within 15 minutes of everyone leaving. It was kind of funny, he had asked me to go downstairs to get his Spongebob blanket and when I got back he was passed out on the living room floor. And he was difficult to wake up for supper.

Our Getaway!!

During James' spring break from school, we decided to take a few days to destress and reconnect. We went up to Duluth for a couple of days and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast there called The Ellery House. We had a wonderful time taking walks, spending time in Canal Park, looking at the shops downtown, but mostly just spending some alone time together. We even went to the Tweed Art Museum located at the college campus. My mom took the three boys for us which was wonderful. They had an awesome time with grandma and even Evan, whom we were worried about leaving, did amazingly well. Now we are starting to plan our family vacation camping trip. It will be Evan's first time camping so it could be interesting but we are looking forward to it.

Phillip turned 3! :)

Our little boy turned 3 years old on Jan. 31st. (sniff, sniff) Boy how the time flies by. It is fun watching him grow and learn. He is really in to singing and can catch on to songs easily. We think he may end up being like his daddy in that respect. He is such a joy.

Sesame Street Live

My mom called me on Monday Jan 22nd to ask me if we were available on Thursday the 25th. She had scored some tickets for Sesame Street Live and wanted to take the boys (and me). Wonderfully enough, we were able to go. We met my mom at my sisters and went to the show. It was kept a complete surprise to the boys until we got in the Target Center and Douglas saw a sign and guessed why we were there. We had "suite" seats. (private balcony room). The boys had an awesome time! (and me and mom did too) They enjoy their time with grandma.

Our other "children"

I have not mentioned these two before but these are our other kids. This is Gizmo and Putter. Putter is the one with more of a black nose and fluffier. We have had Gizmo for 4 years and have had him since he was 8 weeks old. Putter we have had for just over a year and she was 6 months old when we adopted her from the humane society. We don't get them laying together too often so it was a surprise to be able to get a picture of them together.

Chrismas Eve and Day

Our little Santa Claus'

(during their bath on Christmas Eve)

Last Christmas (2005), the boys both received new blankets from grandma and grandpa T., Douglas got spiderman and Phillip got Spongebob. This year they both received matching flannel sheets to go with their blankets from Grandma so we went out and bought matching comforters to go with them also. They sure do like their "new" beds.

The boys both got new spiderman backpacks that have the wheels and are pullable. They have enjoyed pulling them around the house and we even used them as suitcases for them when we went up north to visit.This was Douglas' big gift for Christmas this year. He got a new bike. It was much needed. The one he had was getting too small and we are hoping to teach him to ride this summer. But the weather on Christmas day was so nice that the boys were able to go out and ride their bikes.