New Pictures

Here are some updated pictures of the girls from last weekend.  My friend Sam captured some really GREAT shots!  We went to the local train tracks and also Lagoon Park in Montevideo. 
Sam does photography as her hobby, but I keep saying she really should start up her own studio!
Emmy ~ age 4
Erin ~ age 2 1/2
Enjoy...

J-E-L-L-O

Emmy wants long princess hair.  So a couple of weeks ago Darlene told her she should eat Jello to make her hair & nails grow.  She's been eating Jello like crazy lately. 
Brad was reading "Tangled" to the girls before bed when Emmy tells Brad, "Daddy, Rapunzel must eat LOTS of Jello, she's got REALLY, REALLY long hair!"

Silly Erin

Erin - 2 1/2 Years Old ~ Erin has been jabbering away lately.  I admit she's a little hard to understand sometimes, but for the most part we get what she's saying and it's cute as ever to have her communicating with us.  She has a lisp and her "K's" are switched with "T's."  The word "kitty" becomes...well, you get it.  She loves to talk on the pretend phone which is her hand most of the time.  Funny as heck.

Last weekend my brother Scott & his family came down to our place to go to the State Fair.  Rachel was in the lower level with Erin near the playroom when she told Erin, "It smells so good down here Erin."  Just then Erin came running out of the playroom pointing to the litter box and yelled, "There's poop in there!"

She's definitely growing up and going through her terrible two's.  She has quite the little personality and is very independent.  She's smart as a whip and catches onto things very quickly.  She's learning her letters, she sings the alphabet, counts to 12, spells her name and knows the color brown.  She calls is it "Bown." 
She loves to sing "The Wheels on the Bus," "Bah Bah Black Sheep," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," among others.  Her favorite things to do are:  watching Mickey Mouse Club House, Dora, Monsters Inc., Santa Paws or Toy Story on TV.  She loves to color & read books and pretend.  Her favorite food is Mac-N-Cheese & broccoli...but there isn't much she doesn't like. 

We are still potty training with her.  She tells us when she has to go and likes to go by herself.  She gets a few M&Ms for a reward each time she goes.  Hopefully she will be done wearing Pull-Ups soon. 

I call her Elyn sometimes.  She replies and says, "No mommy I'm Erin!" 



 

Silly Emmy

(Conversation that Emmy and I had in the kitchen the other day.  She was looking at a picture of Brad and I which was taken at my cousin Kim Solberg's wedding.)

Emmy:  Mommy, was I at that place with you in the picture?
Me:  No Emmy.  You weren't born yet.  God hadn't put you in my tummy yet.
Emmy:  That silly God!

Just Kruz'n

We did it. We took the plunge and became boat owners a couple of weeks ago.  It's an 18' Larson.

We took the boat out on Fish Lake for our first outing on July 3rd.  The girls had a blast and love the boat.  Emmy loves to go for rides in the tube.  She keeps saying, "I want to go on another bumpy ride."
Erin loves to play in the boat.  Both girls do very well!

We met Scott & Rachel out on Games Lake near Spicer for the 4th of July.  We all had such a blast! 
We came up with a bunch of names for the boat...Kruz'n Around, Kruz'n Style, Kruze Control, but settled on Scott's choice..."Just Kruz'n."  I love it!

We spent our 6th Anniversary out on Elk Lake near Hoffman with Grandma Bev, Bob & Edna, Lorri, Deb & Jerry, Tony & Christy and all the kids.  We all had fun tubing!  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

We are all getting nice tans!  It's going to be a fun summer!  Come join us and let's go for a Kruz!

Erin's 1st Hair Cut

Erin received her 1st hair cut at the salon from Colie a few weeks ago.  She got three inches cut off the back.  I was sad to see it get cut, but Brad said she could no longer have a "mullet."  Her new cut is as cute as can be.  Colie always does a good job! 

I miss Erin's cute little ringlet pigtails, but it looks like her hair is going to have a lot of natural curl so we'll be able to grow it out again and do pigtails soon.

We saved a lock of her hair for her baby book.  It's a perfect little pigtail.  :)

Brown Swiss

The girls and I attended the Hennepin County Fair last month.  I was expecting a pretty good fair.  But, what I found was a crappy fair that was set up in a field on the outskirts of town.  The rides were cheesy old style rattle trap rides from the 70s.  I went broke putting them on the rides.  The kids enjoyed it though and that's all that matters. 

We then walked over by the "old fashioned" town that was set up.  People were dressed in character and playing their "part."  I will use the word cheesy again.  I was told by one of the performers to step aside (in her lovely accent).  They were getting ready to do a reenactment of a bank robbery.  Oh Lord...all of a sudden they were shooting at each other and then a bunch of them dropped dead on the ground.  I quickly turned the kids around and started walking the other way.  Emmy was questioning me on what happened. 

We then went over to all the "booths/tents/vendors."  The girls got their face painted (cost $3/each).  Emmy got her face painted like a kitty.  (dot on the nose & three lines across the cheek.)  Yep...3 bucks for that.  Erin got a heart on her cheek.  The face painting lady told me that you could go two booths down and get your picture taken with Cinderella & Toy Story characters.  I was excited because the girls LOVE Cinderella & Toy Story.  We got to the booth and discovered it was a cardboard cut out.  SERIOUSLY!!!

The "barn" was more like a petting zoo.  No barn existed.  They had a bunch of different kinds of goats, sheep, cows, etc that you could walk through and pet.  We fed some of the animals. 

The best part was seeing the brown swiss cow.  This reminded me so much of my grandma's farm.  Even though I wasn't even born when they had cattle on the farm...I still remember all the stories and remember seeing pictures growing up. My mom always told stories of milking cows and grandpa Fred's love for the barn/cattle. 

Emmy didn't want to get close to the cows.  Erin was a little more brave.

On a separate trip to the Mall of America, I stumbled upon this awesome millinery shoppe!!!  My grandma Hazel would have loved this store.  She always told the story..."When I was 15, I lied my age so that I could get a job at Dayton's.  I worked in the Millinery Department...They wore hats back in those days." 

Oh My!!...grandma, you would have loved this store!  Memories...

Summer Fun!

We have been busy bees this summer.  We've been blessed with wonderful weather to enjoy all of our summer activities.  The past month and a half we have gone to the zoo with grandma Debbie & great grandma Bev in Whapteon, ND, we've went to a few carnivals (they are not like they used to be), spent time on the lake with Scott & Rachel, and then Brad and I also went to a Roger Waters: Pink Floyd The Wall concert at the Xcel Center.   I love Pink Floyd and The Roger Waters concert was hands down the best concert I have ever been to.  Very good performance!  Wow!


The kids had so much fun taking in the zoo!  We all went for a ride on the carousel...twice, saw lots of animals, and had a picnic in the park. 

Here's a few pictures of the carnival in Willmar.  The kids had fun, but I probably won't take them to a carnival ever again.