Merry Christmas From Our Family To Yours!

Merry Christmas! What a wonderful week it has been filled with family, fun, presents, and food galore!! We had such a whirlwind of a holiday. It all started on Christmas Eve.


Christmas Eve-
We went to Lino Lakes to spend time with my dad's side of the family. Sophia had a wonderful time playing with the kids and we all enjoyed several rounds of bingo. I actually won one game. It was so fun to have the family all together. I really enjoy this tradition and can't remember the last time we didn't spend Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family.


Christmas Day-
We got up early and opened presents. Then we had my grandma, aunt, uncle, cousin, and parents over for a wonderful time of appetizers, presents, and ended with a fantastic dinner. I made chicken lasagna, homemade crescents, and veggies. They stayed for most of the day and then we played games and watched a movie just the three of us.


Day After Christmas-
Yet another celebration with the Wickmans. We had them over for appetizers and then made homemade pizzas. It was delicious! They stayed to open presents and then headed home.


That brings us to yesterday (Tuesday)-
My brother is finally home from Tucson. We celebrated with the Juhl family Christmas. We did our usual appetizer dinner and presents. It was an amazing evening.

With all of the celebrating you would think that we would be tired, but we aren't! Tomorrow evening we are having yet another small Christmas with my brother's girlfriend. Then I think I can officially say we are done celebrating.

Cookies Galore

Two weekends ago my mom, Sophia, and I had a cookie baking day. It was so much fun and the work completely paid off. By the time we were done, our entire kitchen table and most of the counters were covered with cookies.

Sophia was a great helper, although her interest didn't last long. When she went for a nap, we got quite a bit more done.

The results....tons of cookies. I have been giving them as presents and put them out at one of our parties. I just adore the holidays.

Oh Santa how I love you!

Last weekend we made a trip to see Santa. I'm sure this will be the first of many. Sophia just adored him! She worked quite hard on her list and was thrilled when she heard that she could put it in his mailbox. He gave her a candy cane too, which she recently discovered she liked.

Last month completely flew by. With being in school, Sophia at gymnastics, and many events going on including a couple of weddings....we have been busy!

Here are a couple of pictures from Santa:

Halloween Recap

Halloween flew by quicker than I imagined. It started off with our annual trip out to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. It was still warm enough to be in shorts and t-shirts at this point.

After it cooled down, we carved our pumpkins and got ready for the big day. Sophia really enjoyed carving the pumpkins this year. She really wanted to hold the knife. We quickly diverted her attention to coming up with a design instead.


We did a couple of different things this year we don't normally do. We went to a pumpkin carving event at our community center (that was our third carved pumpkin), attended a Halloween celebration at Lifetime Fitness, and Sophia had her first ever party!

The girls came over for snacks, games, and crafts in their costumes. It was pretty cute!


On the actual day, we quickly trick-or-treated over by my parents house. We went to a couple of the neighbors that we know and Sophia also went to her papa and nanas.

Then we went over and had our annual pizza dinner before trick-or-treating with our neighbors the Matzas.

Then we were off! This year I stayed in and passed out candy and Hal went with Sophia. They had a fantastic time and she came back with tons of candy!!

Another wonderful Halloween! Good thing that it wasn't snowing.....
I know that November is already off to a quick start. I can hardly believe that it less than two weeks we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. Time flies!

It's Pumpkin Time!

Last weekend we took advantage of the crisp fall air and went to pick out our pumpkins. We were going to head to the Stillwater Pumpkin Festival, but upon our arrival to downtown Stillwater the line was so long of cars we promptly turned around and made different plans.

Deciding that it was pretty late for us to go to the Pumpkinmania held in Mahtomedi, we opted to head to Axdahl's Farm off of Manning. This was a great choice for us. It had a little bit of everything we were looking for. We got to get out of the car and walk around a bit in both the pumpkin patch and the corn maze. The weather was so warm it was hard to believe that it was October.

After our brief walk, we headed back toward the barn to pick out pumpkins. Of course Sophia went right for the mini ones. She found one that was just her size, but after we saw the price we decided to head elsewhere to actually purchase our pumpkins.

So it was back in the car and we went to our good old pumpkin spot....this person's yard/driveway off of Jamaca in Mahtomedi. The pumpkins were perfect and we found two great ones for carving. We also saw some unusual ones too.

I am excited to get the rest of the fall things out like sweaters and comfy pajamas. Blogger isn't working right so I can't share my pictures with you right now. Hopefully soon. Until then, happy pumpkins!

It's Fall

This weekend we went to one of our traditional fall family places, Pine Tree Apple Orchard. The weather couldn't have been better. It was right around lunch time and the sun was shining brightly. It was cool enough to be wearing a sweatshirt, but not cold or windy at all.

We went all the way up to the pumpkin patch first. As we walked through the orchard, Sophia wanted to examine the trees and the apples. Once we got up to the patch, we walked through looking at all of the different pumpkins. We found greenie or the one green pumpkin we always seem to seek out.

Here's the greenie we found this year!

After walking through the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect one, Sophia got bored and we decided it was time to go back. Here she is with her perfect pumpkin.


Once we made our way back through the orchard, we went inside to check out all of the apples and find the treats. This year we got Apple Delight. It almost seems like a cross between a coffee cake and an apple muffin. We also got two bags of apples and then caramel apples for lunch. This was Sophia's first caramel apple. She really enjoyed it!


Tired and worn out, we headed home for a relaxing evening of pizza and a movie. The weather this week is supposed to be out of the ordinary for fall. 80s!! I think that fall can wait.

First Day of School

Today was Sophia's first day of school. She is enrolled for the school year in a Kindergarten Readiness class. This class follows basically a kindergarten schedule in order to prepare the kids for next year. She has been very excited and couldn't wait for school.

We read books yesterday that talked about the first day of school in preparation for her big day, but today she proved to me that was not necessary at all. She got up at 6:30 and came running into our bathroom asking if it was time for her to get ready for school. I told her yes and she was so excited cheering and jumping up and down.

She brushed her teeth, got dressed, and put on her new shoes. Then we went outside and took a couple of pictures to commemorate the big day. She looked so grown up with her Barbie backpack and all.




When we got to school she jumped right in and sure enough just hugged us off to work. I thought that I would for sure cry, but with all of her excitement it didn't seem possible. I walked away and got in the car with the biggest smile on my face. To see my little girl that excited for school made me happy from the inside out.

Tonight when I picked her up she had nothing but good things to say about her day. She told me they did math, made a chart about breakfast, played outside for recess, used the scissors and markers to make pictures, and even played parachute in Phy Ed. She also informed me that she didn't have sauce on her spaghetti, that the noodles were just plain. Her favorite part of the day was when her teacher Ms. Sarah read a book about a bear on his first day of school.

I can hardly believe that my little girl is growing up so quick. Moms and dads hug your kids tonight as they will be grown before we know it!

MN Zoo

Last week we went to the MN Zoo with our friends the Henriksens. I figured before all of the summer days drift away, we should get to the zoo while the weather is still nice.

We had a wonderful day of sun and fun! The kids just loved all of the animals, and the best part of it for Sophia and I was that it only cost $5. We fought off the crowd at the library and got the one and only museum pass for the day which allowed us to have free admission....a savings of about $30. What a deal!

I loved seeing the baby camel in the green goop and Sophia's favorite was the prairie dogs. She could sit and watch them forever. She loves when they get real close to her so she can examine them through the glass.


Another highlight of the day was to see the farm. Sophia and Logan loved the tractor ride to the farm. We all got to see the piglets too that were only three days old. This made Sophia quite excited for our annual trip to the State Fair. One of her favorite things to do at the fair is see the animals.

We saw the new penguin exhibit put on by 3M too. I was a little disappointed that it was smaller than what I expected, but it was still so much fun to see all of the penguins.

By the time we got home, everyone including the mommies were exhausted. What a fun trip!

To the dentist we go

Yesterday Sophia visited the dentist for the first time ever. I had prepped her ahead of time on what they would do so that she wouldn't be nervous. I think she was more excited then nervous.

We walked into the office and the first thing she told me was, "It smells in here." It was pretty funny. I explained that the smell was because they had to keep everything very clean in the office and that they also used things that smelled that kept your teeth clean. That answer seemed to suffice her curiosity on the smell.

Once we began walking back I could see her tense just a bit as everyone was laying down with bright lights in their face and instruments around their head/body. Her hygienist Gina explained that the reason why they lay people back in the chair is so you can see the movie they show on the tv better. She also told Sophia the movie was on the ceiling! This got her very excited.

She did absolutely wonderful. She sat through the whole cleaning and didn't really pay much attention to Finding Nemo on the ceiling. She picked cotton candy toothpaste and blue raspberry fluoride. The dentist Dr. Browning came in and told Sophia she had beautiful teeth.

Before leaving Sophia got a new toothbrush which she loves, dental floss (which we know will get used as a toy like it always does), an eraser, and a bouncy ball.

Here are a couple of pictures from her adventure:

Sophia before her cleaning


Excited to show me her floss

The end of a great week

Yesterday celebrated the end of a great week for Sophia and her friend Caroline at Vacation Bible School. They both had such a wonderful time and can barely wait to go back next year.

This was the perfect combination of song and play for Sophia. Each day when I picked her up she talked about all of the activities on the way home in the car as well as, the ever popular SNACK. I'm pretty sure all kids love snack time, but Sophia loves it probably a bit more as we don't really have snacks during the day at home.

Last night the kids put on a program of a couple of their songs that they worked on with actions throughout the week. It was pretty cute. The program was followed by a video or picture slideshow. Both girls really enjoyed seeing themselves on the big screen.


After the program all of the kids got treats from Dairy Queen of their request. Sophia picked out as she called it, "a chocolate Dilly Dally bar" meaning a Dilly Bar.


What a wonderful week! I know she is looking forward to going back again next year.

Her first portrait

The other evening Sophia was drawing on her Magna Doodle pad. I have only seen her draw a person one other time on regular paper, but this was something to document.

In her words, "I drew a portrait of you and daddy." This made my heart completely melt. It was so sweet.

Growing Up

Sophia had her four year well-check the other day at the doctor. I can hardly believe that she is already four. Here are her stats:

Weight 32 pounds %20
Height 40 1/4 inches %50
BMI 14 %20

She is growing like a weed as far as height. Doc says not to worry about her eating or her weight considering she eats healthy and loves her milk :) She also got two more vaccinations. Now she just has two to go when she turns five before she enters Kindergarten and she will be done for a while.

I couldn't believe how brave she was either. Not a tear shed. A tiny whimper, but she was so proud of herself that she boasted to everyone as we left about how she was "a big girl and doesn't cry for silly shots". It was quite funny!

Happy Fourth Of July

What an incredible holiday weekend we had. I was a bit sad yesterday when I knew that we were back to a normal routine. Hal had the last four days off and it was so nice to spend some much needed family time together.

Thursday was spent playing outside as a family and then in the sprinklers that night. It was SOOOO hot it actually set records here in MN for the high temps. On

Friday, we spent the day hanging outside and getting some of the grocery shopping for the weekend done. That night we attended the annual Stonemill Farms Bike Parade. There weren't very many people there because it was so hot, but we had a great time riding bikes and getting to meet/greet the firemen after the parade. On

On Saturday, Sophia attended a princess party for a little neighbor girl. She had a wonderful time getting her face painted by Snow White. Then it was off to my parents pool for the day. We came back over to our house for dinner and then it was off to another neighbor's house for fireworks.

Sunday started off with a 7 mile run for myself and my friend Molly. After getting back we spent the day walking and at the park. It was another hot one. We all took an afternoon rest and got geared up for the big party. The food, fireworks, and families were amazing. I just love the fact that we only have to travel across the street!

The actual holiday seemed much more laid back. The day started off by going to Afton to see the parade. It was hot and packed. After getting home we didn't do much except for enjoy the company of our neighbors, grill, and watch several fireworks from every angle of our porch.

I love holidays and this would rank right up there, as one of the best long weekend we have spent together in quite some time.

Summer is here.....or is it?

So the summer weather hasn't really made an appearance around here at all since I have been done with school. It has been unseasonably cool and I can't even explain how much it has rained. This week is hoping to be the warmest it's been all summer. Please keep your fingers crossed as we need the sun!

Sophia and I have been keeping ourselves busy with indoor activities like: Barbies, Ponies, lots of art projects, and going to the library each week for books.

She had her first treat from the ice cream man this week which also makes it feel much more like summer then anything else. Of course she picked Scooby Doo. I was hoping it would be chocolate, but not my choice I guess.


This weekend we got the museum pass to go to the MN Zoo for a fraction of what it would normally cost. We saved about $40 by using the pass. Gotta love saving money! The day was cloudy and cool, but got sunny in the end. We had a wonderful time checking out all of the animals and having a picnic lunch. Next week, they will open a new penguin exhibit. We are planning to take a trip back to see it when it opens.

Sophia checking out the grizzly bear


Taking care of the baby goat

Say it isn't so

Well, I was hoping that it was just rain that was glistening on the seat of my car because I forgot to close my car window during the rain last week on Wednesday, but I knew that was awfully weird.

After teaching my class at the Y, I approached my car in the parking lot only to find the driver's side rear window completely smashed out and my purse and all of the contents inside of it gone.

I went into super action stealth mode by bringing Sophia back in to Kidstuff and calling the police. I immediately began calling the one and only credit card company I knew the number for by heart. How could someone do this? What is wrong with people.

The police responded awfully slow considering they are a stones throw away from the front doors at the Y. I get it, I'm not a dire emergency, but come on.

The officer said the person was probably watching me in the parking lot and I next time should be "smarter" about hiding my purse under my seat in the back.

I finally got a hold of Hal and we slowly made our way home. Sophia sat in the back and I made her wear her sunglasses and turn her head away, just in case any glass shards came flying back at her.

Once home the chaos of remembering what was in my purse and calling began. It only took less than an hour for that person or people to ruin my first week of summer and spend WAY too much of our hard earned money.

Luckily, nobody was hurt. That is what I have to keep coming back to. For now, I am getting more exercise than my body has bargained for by pulling the wagon everywhere with Sophia. Things seem quite different. I kind of feel like I am 16 again. No car, no money, no access to several things. It is amazing that you take going to the grocery store for granted. Yep, can't do that either. I told Hal that they probably wouldn't let me write a check upon showing them I have no proof of id.

Now that things are starting to get back in order, I am really considering not carrying a purse at all. Too bad, that being a mom doesn't allow for this luxury. That purse was like a treasure chest of Goldfish, coloring stencils, and little trinkets for my tiny tot.

Well, if being a mom means that I am increasing my chances for someone to again snatch my purse......then so be it. I wouldn't change that for anything in the world.

The end of the year shows

Sophia's dance and gymnastics both had their end of the year shows in the last two weeks. She did a fantastic job. We are so very proud at how hard she has worked over the course of the year in both of these classes.

She will continue taking gymnastics over the summer, but take a break from dance. Here are some photos from her programs.

Sophia with her dance teacher Miss Shelley

Post-recital photo with mommy and daddy

Sophia with her coach Miss Kristy

Memorial Day Weekend

Despite the yucky weather this weekend, we have truly enjoyed this holiday. Friday night, we had family movie night due to the rain. We were supposed to be attending our neighborhood movie night, but it was cancelled.

Saturday, I got up and finished my last long run. Then we spent the rest of the day outside. Around 4 our friends the Barretts came over for a bbq. Sophia just adored playing with Bryce. Bryce loved all of the toys. It was so nice to spend time with my best friend and have our families together.


The kids had a great time playing in Sophia's new tunnel tent that she got from her birthday. Sophia would crawl through and then Bryce would follow.


After a ton of fun, it was time for the Barretts to head home. Sophia went up to bed and then we started playing Yahtzee. We knew Sophia wasn't very tired, so we decided to get her up and let her stay up late. She helped roll the dice for Yahtzee.

Then we went out to a bonfire with our neighbors. Hathaway and Delaney played so nicely with Sophia.

Yesterday we spent the day running errands. Then Sophia went to her Papa and Nanas. Hal mowed the lawn and I went on a run. I also got my flower planted. Then it was date night. We went out for Mexican and came home to watch the movie Country Strong. After that it was off to bed.

Today we are headed out to the MOA for some more adventures. After the mall we are going over to my parents for dinner.

Only a couple more days left of school. I can hardly wait!

Four Year Pictures

So I took Sophia on a mini-photo session this week. I am not quite satisfied with the pictures, but wanted to share two of them that I like so far. Another session this weekend! Hopefully I will like these pictures much better.

Four already??!!

Dear Sophia,
I can hardly believe that you are four years old today. You are growing and changing each and every day. I take my eyes off of you for just a second and you are already doing something new.

You have truly shown me that being a mother and a parent is the most amazing job anyone can have. I love the way you snuggle with me and hold your blankey close to my face. I love the way you giggle when we tickle you. Your smile and laughter can light up a room.

Some day I think you might be a doctor. You are incredibly caring and are so genuinely concerned when people or animals get hurt. I want you to reach for whatever dream you have and don't stop until you get there.

I love you very much and am looking forward to watching you grow into a beautiful young woman. Thank you for giving me the most special gift possible.

Love, Mommy

Sophia's Ariel Party

This past weekend we celebrated Sophia's Fourth Birthday with an Ariel themed party. The weather was not so wonderful, so it was great that the party was inside. Perfect weather for a movie!!

The kids arrived and we did a small craft with pipe cleaners. Sophia is easily entertained with a pack of these for hours, so I knew that they would be a big hit.

Sophia showing her friend Ryan her pipecleaner spider

After the arts and crafts project, the kids headed down to the movie theater to watch "The Little Mermaid". The kids adored having the popcorn while watching the movie.


They finished up the movie and then went back upstairs to the party room for lunch. Lunch was a big hit too. Sophia's favorite: uncrustables, carrots with ranch dip, and juice boxes. Everyone ate a great lunch and then it was time for presents.

She got so many lovely things. What a lucky little girl. This picture I could not resist posting for the pure happiness that is showing on her face:

Her very own Ariel and Prince Eric dolls

I made at her request an Ariel cake and I am pretty excited at how it turned out. I just loved the whole cake table!


She had such a fun birthday party and it was over in a whirl wind of only a few hours. After the party we went home to relax and have family movie night with pizza. I can hardly believe that in a few short days we will have a four year old. Time flies by so quickly!

Mother's Day 2011

Today we spent Mother's Day at the Como Zoo. Hal is gone in Las Vegas so I thought it would be fun to do something special with Sophia. Luckily the weather held out for us. It wasn't too cold or too windy. I was kind of hoping for a repeat day of yesterday. The weather was gorgeous and we spent the whole day outside. Oh well, nothing can be as planned.

The zoo was packed! We were incredibly lucky to find a parking spot. We spent most of the time looking at the animals. Some of the animals weren't out yet due to the fact that the weather isn't exactly warm yet.

We only got the statues of the giraffes. The real ones weren't out yet.

After seeing all of the animals I let Sophia go on some rides. She just loves rides. She chose the magic carpet ride....similar to Aladdin.

Here she is on the ride.

When we finished the rides we went over to the conservatory part to check out the Sunken Gardens and the spring flower display. It was just beautiful. I got some wonderful photos.

Tonight we are going to head out for dinner. Then it's back to the regular week of busy. Next weekend we are having Sophia's fourth birthday party. I can hardly believe she is almost four.