It was fun to have everyone (the twins, my mom, and 3 of my cousins) over last Friday for a craft day. I must admit my sisters are much more on the craft ball than myself, but I had a good time and it was fun to talk and craft. I helped keep an eye on the babies a little bit till our cousins came, then I was able to make some yummy bread. As the afternoon wore down I got out the camera to get a few shots of Brianna with Lucius on the floor. He was showing off his mad rolling over skills.
Oliver even decided to join the fun.
I'm starting to like the day after craft day even better. I found myself in the mood to continue the productivity and hem up a few curtains that I've been waiting on in our bedroom and Brianna's room. With the left over fabric from a our curtains and the leftovers from Brianna's existing curtains I was able to make one more set of curtains for Brianna's room for above her crib. It's nice to have that checked off the list, plus I think it turned out quite nicely!
Ok... So I've been trying really hard to catch Brianna rolling over. She has been rolling over, but only when I'm not looking - tricky girl. Yesterday I had the Lord of the Rings on, not really watching it, just playing in the background as I was getting a few things done and she started rolling over. I'm not sure why, but when I recorded this with the camera, it came out really loud. (I promise it was not that loud) I'm not sure what happened. Anyway, I finally caught it. I think her method is superb, almost as though she is practicing her ballerina moves already. Notice the legs crossing and the arm move straight up and around!
As an added bonus, the first person to tell me what part of the Lord of the Rings (it might be somewhat difficult) happened to be playing at that certain moment, will get a (tbd) prize!
This afternoon, while Brianna took a nap, I thought I'd take the opportunity to clean the bathroom (yay, fun!!). Eko had been outside all afternoon and finally came inside to cool off. I guess the tile or hardwood wasn't doing the trick. He followed me into the bathroom, proceeded to gingerly climb into the bathtub and then lay down - he only gingerly moves when he thinks he's is being sneaky and doesn't want to be caught. I will say I'm glad he isn't afraid of the tub and likes taking baths but this, I thought, was a little extreme. I had to wait almost 10 minutes for him to get out of the tub so I could finally clean it (I didn't think it was worth it to move him). It was a good thing I was going to clean it because his dirty paws left their mark!
At a garage sale last week, I found a doctor's play set (One of my favorite pieces is the blood pressure cuff). For our last play time together for a while, Oliver wanted to play with the "doctor's kit". As we were learning what each piece was for, we tried it on him, me, Brianna and even Eko. Here he is practicing on Eko!
"Lookin' good Eko"
The entire time we were practicing, Eko would just lay there. I am so thankful Eko is so calm (for the most part) with kids. We couldn't ask for a better dog!
The previous homeowner must have REALLY enjoyed small granite landscaping rock because it is tucked away here and there all over our yard. We planned and schemed and tried to figure out how to get rid of these little things with as little labor as possible. How does one relieve himself of unwanted landscape rock? (and don't say Craigslist)
Thankfully, as I mentioned before, these little rock of ages are in various landscaped areas in our yard. So we hauled them to our backyard 1wheel borrow at a time. We didn't keep track of how many loads we moved, but the area I'm standing in above is 200 SF and the rocks were 6" deep. That's almost 4 CY...a lot of rock!
Anyway, we thought it would be fun (ha!) to plant a small flower / vegetable garden in lieu of the dull, dry, and boring granite rock. So today we began by hand tilling our new garden spot.
Here's the black dirt that will replace the granite.
Eme is happily evening out the new black dirt.
Thankfully my dad came over to lend his expertise in manual labor, but more importantly planting. You know what they say, "You can take the boy out of the farm..."
In progress...
The finished product!
It doesn't necessarily look like it from this picture, but it was a lot of work. But we can't wait to taste fresh produce later this summer. Oh and, of course, the weeds will pull themselves, right? ;)
With only one more week to go at work and with our kidswap winding down I thought I would pull out one of my stops and try coloring with Oliver. I was able to "recycle" a few wrongly printed banners from work and was glad to have a purpose for them. I'm not sure why I didn't try coloring before but we had a good time. As you can see, the banner is long, about 8 ft in length. I had to really coerce Oliver to move from coloring the same spot over and over again. I traced him on the paper and at one point said, "let's color some hair on your head." Well, I should have been more careful because he started to take the crayon to his actual head.
Last Saturday, Jon, Brianna and I went to help finish moving Grandpa Bill out of his old apartment. I did what I could to help, but holding Brianna with one arm and moving furniture was not on my day's task list. I offered to help clean out the cupboards and fridge, which ended up to be quite the task in itself, but I was glad to be of some use. In between working, I had to take breaks to feed and/or change Brianna. Our niece, Kaitlyn, was all about being wherever Brianna was and took the opportunity to come with me when I would leave the apartment. All she wanted to do was hold her. Here is a picture of her trying to readjust Brianna on her own!
She did very well. She was even able to carry her back to the apartment all by herself. Which I think she was pretty proud of! No pictures of that... I was too busy being her spotter. Thanks for hanging out with us Kaitlyn!
This size 22 shoe has infiltrated our family photos, and not entirely on accident. I received this shoe at work, while Jon and I were still in Chicago. A local marketing firm was advertising "something big is coming" - first it was a large tube, next an oversized insulated mug, and then came the shoe. Even though it was only one (the left) I thought it was worth hanging on to, so my boss passed it on to me (otherwise it would have been trashed), and now oddly enough a new tradition has started. When I was brainstroming the possible uses for the shoe and landed on having each of baby born in the family photographed with it, I wasn't totally sure my sisters would go for it. But 3 years, 3 states, 4 families, and 5 babies later, I'd say it caught on. Thanks for going along and stepping out into a wacky idea. I know these photos will come in handy some day!
I was in the middle of reading blogs and searching the web this fine rainy Saturday, when I realized all was quite (except for the current Eko dream - growls included). I looked up and this is what I saw... It is wonderful when moments like these come along and all I can think of is how grateful I am for a beautiful baby girl and a calm, gentle spirited dog - not to mention a fantastic husband. Hope you are being blessed with at least a little R&R this weekend.
I love this picture - how Lana seems to be ever so gently touching Brianna's face!
Last weekend, we decided to let Brianna hang out with her new best friend Lana (our friends' Pete and Heidi's new little girl). We packed up, headed out and had a fantastic evening. We had dinner, went for a walk, and even took some pictures. We are so excited for Pete and Heidi, AND (a little selfishly) for Brianna to have girl her age, since all her local cousins are boys. It will be so much fun to see them grow up with each other - even if they do have a fight once in a while!
Sitting at the Twins game last Friday night, Jon captured this excellent photo of our daughter just waking up from a nice nap. It's one of those that you can't help but share with the world. We'd love to hear your ideas on a caption for this photo. Creativity welcome!
The inaugural game started off with over 200 Mortenson Construction workers unfurling Old Glory that literally took up the entire outfield. A moment of silence followed for 3 servicemen who died in Iraq last week.
As I was posing for the photo op, Brianna just couldn't keep her eyes off the game! That's my girl! Since I'm the dad I'm allowed to brag...don't we look great together enjoying our first Twins game? She's the best!
Just another Twins fan.
What a beautiful afternoon! We even saw my Uncle Jerry and Cousin Jodi, and our friend John Newton (no pictures, sorry).
Brianna was happy being held by Eme as they were also enjoying their first Twins game together.
But the best was experiencing our first outdoor Twins game (in MN) together as a family. Oh the memories!
Eme, Brianna and I took an impromtu 4 mile walk/hike on Sunday along the Mississippi River to the beautiful Minnehaha Falls. Our Nalgene couldn't resist getting in our family portrait.
Oliver even decided to join the fun.
