Tucker

My parents and brother had this wonderful dog named Tucker.  Caleb became really good buddies with Tucker when we lived there for 6 months.  They would wander out into the garden and weeds on a daily basis.  Tucker was a true sweetheart, constantly letting Caleb jump on him, pull his tail (tisk tisk Caleb) and follow him around everywhere.  Caleb would often tell me, "Mommy, Tucker is my best buddy ever", which of course made my heart smile.


A couple months ago, Tucker wasn't doing well, so he left us and went up to heaven.  I had to explain this to Caleb because we were headed up to my parents and Tucker wasn't going to be there.  He even asked before we left "and I get to see Tucker, right?".  I had to remind him that Tucker was in heaven so he wouldn't be at my parents.  He seemed sad but I don't think he could quite understand.  He still prays every night for Tucker.  Their bond was real.  Very real.  To this day, if Caleb sees a dog, he tells us "my dog Tucker is up in heaven".


Until we get a dog, Tucker will forever be in this little boys heart.

Wild Playoffs

In honor of the Minnesota Wild in the playoffs and for all you hockey fans here's a cute picture of Caleb.  Has nothing to do with the Wild but at least it's hockey related.

Spring

We are loving spring and taking full advantage of it.  We found a new park in Waconia and both kids had a blast!!

Caleb's First Movie at the Theatre

Dave and I took Caleb to see his very first movie in the theatre, The Good Dinosaur.  I imagined it to be a glorious day.  His eyes glued to the big screen, shoving popcorn in his mouth, taking sips of soda without looking away from the movie and of course shoveling loads of Sour Patch Kids in his mouth just as I did when I was a kid.  My imagination sometimes expects the best because that's clearly not what happened at Caleb's first movie theatre experience.  Since it was at the AMC theatre, we knew to show up a little late because they have an ungodly amount of previews and well, as we all know Caleb, sitting still for long periods of time isn't his cup of tea.  We thought we were geniuses!!  Even though we were late we still saw 3 to 4 previews and they decided to play a movie short which was about 15 minutes long.  I was a wee bit frustrated because, one, it was long and was cutting into Caleb's max sit still time and two, it was kind of scary.  No point in being frustrated, let's just enjoy this first experience.  Ok the movie is finally starting. YAY!  I look over and Caleb is enjoying the movie, ahhh time to relax and soak up The Good Dinosaur.  Twenty minutes pass by and I hear this little voice, "Mommy, I need to go potty".  Ok no biggie, this kind of thing is expected since he's been drinking soda.  Dave brings him to the bathroom, they return and he's right back to where he was before, engulfed in the movie.  Ten minutes go by and I hear this sweet dear voice again, "Mommy, I want to go home."  Good Lord, there's still an hour left of the movie.  I get my promotional shoes on and start hyping Caleb up about the movie.  He's in and out watching the movie, sitting on Dave's lap and then on my lap, hopping down to the ground and back in his chair again, and tapping his feet on the chair in front of him which was occupied.  I look around and notice every other child is angelically sitting there, intently watching the movie and my son is Mr. ants in his pants.  Promotion mode went out the window about 15 minutes ago, so now it's time to bring in the BIG GUNS, CANDY.  We have now moved into full on bribery.  "If you sit still and watch the rest of the movie, we will go get you some candy".  Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle goes the wrapper as Dave tries to monitor the remaining amount of time left in the movie to the remaining amount of Sour Patch Kids.  Dave you better be on your game, because if the candy runs out before the movie is done, we are going to have a crisis on our hands.  Finally and I mean FINALLY, the movie finishes, we can go HOME, praise the Lord!!  Needless to say, we won't be taking Caleb to a movie for awhile.


Objects in below picture are less happier than they appear.

Birthdays & Basketballs

I'm thirty four, how did that happen?  I'm officially mid thirties....I remember when 30 sounded old and I'm now four years past that.  I still feel like a kid so that's all that matters.  Dave took Caleb to Dairy Queen to pick out a birthday cake for me.  From the bottom of his heart, this is what he picked and I wouldn't expect anything else.  He loves basketball.

After we ate my delicious DQ ice cream cake, Mike and La graciously watched the kids so Dave and I could go out on a date.  We dined at Lola's Lakehouse for the very first time which was a wonderful experience.  Dave devoured his Lobster Mac and Cheese while I did the same with my Ahi Tuna.  We ran into my midwife Jamie who wished me a happy birthday as well.  She's so sweet and lives on the lake in Waconia so she's a frequent visitor to Lola's.  It's such a lovely place and we are excited to visit again in the summer!

After that we made our way over to Lake of the Isles for an event on the ice.  We "danced" on the ice skating rink, saw ice sculptures, watched men throwing fire and ran into this fella.

 

It was such a lovely birthday, thank you to everyone for making it very special!!  I feel so loved and so incredibly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful family.

First Piggies

Zoe came home from school with her first pigtails and oh. my. goodness. she looks so incredibly adorable.  Seriously her cuteness is on overload!  I could kiss you forever little miss Zoe.

First Day of Preschool

Caleb's first day of preschool was January 4th, 2016.  We clearly forgot it was his first day so one, we didn't dress him up (he's wearing a Viking's shirt) and two we didn't even take a picture of him or with him.  Mom fail.  Oh well, at least Ladybug took a picture for us!!

They moved him up early because they said he was ready.  We've always thought he was so smart but probably just biased since he's our son.  Everyone thinks their kid is the best, smartest, fastest, most athletic, etc and clearly we are just another one of those parents that think that.  We don't however rub it in other parent's faces.  We just humbly smile and thank God that He gave us such a little blessing.

Below is a picture of Caleb writing his name.  He now enjoys writing everyone's name in the family and constantly points out if he sees a D, M, C or Z.  D for Daddy, M for Mommy, C for Caleb and Z for Zoe!!!

Packers

No it's not football season, but we're still playing catch up and will be for probably the next 10 posts.  Anyway, these have got to be two of the cutest Green Bay Packers fans you've ever seen.  Go Pack Go!!  We'll let Dave and Caleb stick to that sissy purple color (wink) (wink).

Snoozy Woozy

There's nothing cuter than these two snoozing.  As an added bonus you get to see some butt crack.  Seriously though, my heart is full.  God sure did great creating these two babes.

Christmas 2015

Still playing a bit of catch up.  Christmas was an adventure this year.  December kicked our booty with sickness.  There was at least 2 of us sick at a time and we just kept passing things around to each other.  The night before we left to visit my parents in Grantsburg for Christmas Eve, Caleb woke up throwing up.  He woke up the next morning just fine (or at least he said so because he wanted to go visit grandpa and grandma) so we ventured our way to the great state of Wisconsin.  We came back that night and the following day (Christmas) hosted Dave's family in our new home.  That night I woke up with the stomach flu and Dave felt the same shortly after.  It was an emergency call to my mom at 5:30AM to see if she could come down to watch the kids so Dave and I could rest.  MOM TO THE RESCUE.  She of course came down IN A SNOWSTORM to watch her little grandkiddies.  And on top of that, per her usual self, cleaned the house, did the laundry, sterilized everything and displayed her over-the-top awesomeness that she always does!  We made it through Christmas with a few bumps but never-the-less it was wonderful to enjoy another FIRST in our home.


Kids lovin' on Grandma Patty.



Caleb and I building towers and garages with a toy from Grandpa Harley & Grandma Patty.



First pictures of Christmas in our new home!



Grandma Patty made Kaylin a Viking's outfit for her American Girl doll.  She LOVED it!



Dave sang the traditional "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." again this year only we didn't wake up Caleb because let's be honest Caleb rises at an ungodly hour...an hour when it's still dark and everyone else is still sleeping except those on the other side of the world.  Zoe was wide eyed and bushy tailed too...maybe they suspected presents?!  Zoe was playing in Caleb's bedroom as Dave sang the ever familiar song and we both mustered up the best morning faces we possibly could at 6am on Christmas.  I'm pretty certain we both had toothpicks holding up our eyelids.  Kids ran (ok maybe just Caleb) downstairs to see presents.  Dave and I sprinted as well, only we took a sharp turn to the coffee pot.


Check out Dave's vocals here:  https://youtu.be/QCcfpBx5HJk


This video was from 2 years ago but still cracks me up to this day.  All his dreams came true that Christmas day we gave him prune juice.  Never a dull moment with this kid. https://youtu.be/jBAKsURi7Ww


Last but not least, pictures of these two adorable cuties.