Levi is 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the final monthly pictures!!!! I actually may continue it, just because it's so fun to see him grow! I'll have to find something other than his Bumbo to put him in though... maybe something he'll stand next to so I can see how he's growing. LOVE this boy! I'll give more of an update on him later... but had to make sure I got this up! He turned 1 on October 19th!

11 months and counting.

Seems as though I hardly am able to get on here besides the monthly updates, but at least I am!!!
So... Here's Levi at 11 months:

This was taken the day after he turned 11 months old. I can't believe that it's almost been a year! I so vividly remember being pregnant, and the morning I went to the hospital to have him! It's been eventful, but a wonderful 11 months!

Last week... seems longer than that... we found out Levi has a severe allergy to peanuts. I gotta say, it was terrifying. I know the nurse on the urgent care hotline was trying to calm me down, but when your son starts to get hives all over his hands and face, and his tongue starts to swell up right in front of your face... you don't really stay calm. Then... when your husband forgot to charge your car battery, so you run out to rush him to urgent car/ER, and your car battery is DEAD... you start bawling your eyes out. LUCKILY, he had a very small amount, and that was the farthest it got. I was able to go to Walgreens (after my mom picked me up... thank God she was close!) and give him Benedryl, which cleared up his symptoms. Then, after that we took him to his pediatrician. I was an absolute wreck... hardly got sleep for a couple nights thinking about all of the "what-if's". You know? This is my baby, and something as small as a peanut getting into his mouth could kill him! That's terrifying. He also has the contact allergy, because John ate some trail mix, then kissed his face, and he got hives exactly where John kissed him... I hope he also outgrows this! His milk allergy does seem to be lessening, because it's only a level 2. His allergies are this (there are 6 levels, 6 being deadly) Milk, soy and egg whites are level 2, cats (dander, etc.) are a 3, and peanuts are a level 4. To me, it's amazing the difference between level 3 and 4. My mom has a cat and when we go there, he just sneezes and gets itchy eyes... but with peanuts, we had to get epi-pens and carry them everywhere with us, and always have benedryl on hand. What a difference one level makes! I'm calming down after doing research about different restaurants, etc... but it's gonna take a lot of attention on my part. He can't even have anything that would have a TRACE of peanuts... nothing that says on the box that it's manufactured in a plant with peanuts. So... I will have to be very attentive, but I definitely don't mind! He's my sweet baby, and I don't ever want to have to use that epi pen! NEVER! 

He's doing lots of cute stuff too! He is cruising on the furniture, pulling up on EVERYTHING!!!! He  crawls all over me trying to stand up too. He has started to dance to music, and it's so adorable!! He loves to explore, and just likes to crawl everywhere. He is a cuddler too right after naps and first thing in the morning. He'll just sit in my lap for 20-30 minutes. It's so sweet! I just eat it up too, I know it won't last. He's been trying a lot of new foods! I have a very hard time finding something to feed him what with the limitations that he has in allergies, but I've found some stuff I can try with him. Some he likes, and some he does not. Sometimes he likes it one day, and will spit it out the next. We just keep trying though! :) He still LOVES his baby cereal though. He has it 3 times a day with the other food he eats. Madi hated it at this point... so cute! He's definitely a mommy's boy. He's very attached! I love it though, and soak it in! 

Madilyn is 3, 3 1/2 next month. She's so grown up though! She loves bossing Levi around! She is in ballet class, and just loves it! We recently had to switch studios because the previous one focused too much on tumbling instead of ballet, and she wasn't quite old enough, and she doesn't quite trust the teachers. So, we tried out one where a little friend of hers goes, and she just loves it! She loves to show me her moves etc. She's very good at following instructions too. I'm so proud of her! She's been growing up so much! She's started memorizing verses. She can memorize anything that's put to song! She loves to dance, especially to the song "Good Morning" by Mandisa. She likes to hear songs over and over... and over and over and over... and over and over again (get the point?) to memorize them if she likes them. She does too!

She loves to have books read to her, especially Dr. Suess books. She's also starting to get really good at pretending. She will pretend my necklace holds "pixie dust", or fabric is a fish, or something like that. She has a very active imagination! It's so cute to hear her play with her toys. She still loves her cars, but she also is really loving her Tinkerbell dolls, and anything to do with Rapunzel or Merida from "Brave". She LOVES running. She can run farther than I can! She's amazing! I think she'll either be a runner, or in soccer someday.  Something that requires endurance, cuz she's got it! She wants long hair like Rapunzel, but it's just ridiculous. She hates having me brush her hair. Some days its like a rats nest.... not even joking! 

She loves her brother, but he can really get on her nerves. There are times that I have to remind her that pushing him away and yelling "NO LEVI" at the top of her lungs won't always get her the results she wants. Overall though, she's patient and loving with him. I gotta watch her though. She doesn't always know her strength! She's also very particular about what she wears. So much so, that I took her shopping with me this year. She basically likes t-shirts and leggings. Pretty (comfy) dresses, anything that sparkles (if it's soft) and MAYBE a skirt. MAYBE. Well... now both kids are up, and I just realized I didn't start dinner yet! Gotta go!

God Bless!

My 10 month old:

Ok...
So, the things Levi has done this month are crazy! I have been putting all of his "accomplishments" on our kitchen calendar so that I'll remember them. I don't always have time to run upstairs and write it down, so the calendar is a good place to keep track of that stuff.
So this month:

He had his first fever :(
Had his 9 mo appt. (a little late)
Started to switch from army crawl, to a consistent crawl on his hands and knees.
Says "hi" and "buh-bye" when waving
Started pulling up on EVERYTHING and trying to cruise
Drank rice milk out of a sippy cup. (I'm trying to wean him before we go on our weekend away in Oct!)
Had his first "angry" reaction to mommy. I put avocado in his mouth... 2x. ;)
Goes from crawling to sitting, then back to crawling without help.

He is around 19 pounds. I've tried to weigh him at home... doesn't work so well. He's quite wiggly. Except for right when he wakes up, he's constantly moving. He's so funny! He likes to be crawling and moving around. He just crawls around and looks for toys to play with. As long as his tummy is full, and diaper is clean, he's a happy camper. He loves toys that make noise, and things that are colorful. He's been afraid of toys that move by themselves though. He cries and goes crawling for mommy. :)
He's a great sleeper, even while teething. He woke up a couple times, but if I give him a bit of ibuprofen at his last nursing, he's good all night. He sleeps from about 7:30 or 8p to 6:30 or 7a.  He also takes 2 naps during the day that last from 1 1/2 to 2 hours. At the most 2 1/2 hours. One in the morning (2 hours after he wakes up) which is usually around 9 or 9:30a. The second one is around 1 or 1:30p. The nice thing is that it's at the same time as Madilyn's.

He's been trying some new stuff. It's really hard though. What do you feed a 10 month old that can't eat dairy or soy? He still eats baby cereal for all 3 meals, plus cheerios, and then canned or frozen veggies for his finger foods. He's tried pasta w/some oil and seasonings on it and likes it a lot! He only has 2 teeth (working on more), so I'm limited to what I can give him. It's just hard to think of anything that doesn't involve milk in some way... or something that is ok for kids under 1. I am just hoping that his range of foods will expand once he has more teeth, and can eat more things.

Well... that's about it for now! Glad I got that stuff down while I was thinking about it.

God Bless!

Levi is 10 months old!

Ok, here's my normal pic for now... I'll have to write about my crazy boy later... because seriously, he's met a lot of milestones the past couple weeks! Plus he's working on his 3rd and 4th tooth...

More later!

God Bless!

9 month stats

Levi had a "sick" visit at the doctor today, and it was supposed to be his 9 month well visit. He went to bed fine last night, and I checked on him to feed him one last time, and he had a pretty decent fever. It was about 101 under the arm... but I feel like my thermometer sucks, because he felt warmer than that. Anyways, we cooled him down, etc. and went to the doctor today. I guess it's just a virus, and he's got a red, sore throat. We'll have to stay home for a couple days till it goes away.
We still got our shot, since it was just a virus, and it about ripped my heart out! His little lip puckered out, and tears came streaming down, I about cried! Sweet baby... I hate it when he's unhappy, or hurts. It's not fair that babies hurt. Not far at all!
His stats are: 18.8lbs (I thought 20, but I was a bit off!) which is 25th percentile. His length is 28.75" which is 50th to 55th percentile. His head is 18" around, which is also about the 55th percentile.
The only things he's not doing WELL that they asked me about is pulling up to standing. He does pull up, and crawls up onto the lower part of the coffee table, etc... and onto mommy and daddy, but he doesn't pull up in his crib yet, and doesn't pull up very well on the furniture yet. He also doesn't play "patty cake"... didn't even think to try playing it! I'll have to work on that one.
Here he is @ about 8 1/2 months... and I'm showing it because I pulled up Madilyn's stats at 9 months:


Madilyn was 17lbs even, and 27 1/2" long. She was a bit smaller! :) Here's a picture of her walking behind her push walker @ 9 months. Levi, there is no way he could do that right now! He's just content crawling. He's such a happy boy! It's fun to see their differences!



Well, that's it for now!
God bless!

9 mo

Had to do the normal 9 month picture with all of the previous months. Gotta keep with trend!

3 going on 16, and 9 months old!

So, a few weeks ago we got to have my friend Katie Smoak come and take pictures of the kids again. What better than to be able to hire a friend to take pictures of your kids?! They actually smile!!!! (Plus she's just really good! :) )

This was last month, so Levi was 8 months old, and Madilyn was 3 (as of April.... so 3 yrs and 2 mo.). 

1 of the first family pics! I was laughing at Levi trying to put just his head up. I was like, he could have pushed himself up a bit more, or we could have had him sitting... but this was just too cute!

Another good family pic! I was excited to get some good ones of the four of us!

My 2 sweet babies. I feel beyond blessed. I just never imagined how amazing it would feel to have such precious children. After having a miscarriage before Madilyn, and having friends who have struggled to get pregnant, or lost their babies, it makes me beyond grateful. I just hold them tighter and try to treasure the moments I have with them, even when they are driving me crazy. I try to remind myself just how blessed I am. I mean, look at my children!!!! Crazy cute right?!

Levi... woah is he busy! I have a 9 month appointment scheduled, so I'll have to post his stats after the appointment. I THINK he's about 20 pounds. He is STILL nursing 5-6 times per day, plus snacks and 3 good sized meals. He's a hungry and growing boy! He is crawling too. He's doing the army crawl, plus when he's ok with going a bit slower, he gets up on his hands and knees and will do normal crawl. If he's in a hurry though, he keeps with the army crawl. He's into EVERYTHING!!! He tries to pull lamps off of tables, and cords out of the wall. Anything and everything that could possibly be dangerous or electrical he tries to put it into his mouth. Things that I thought I got off of the floor he somehow has in his hands like 2 seconds later. HOW?! :)

He takes 2 good naps every day. One around 9:30 or 10a, and one around 1:30 or 2p. He sleeps between 1 1/2 to 2 hours for each nap. He is doing good with foods too! We've moved up to stage 3 with a lot of things, and he's learning textures. He eats cheerios, rice krispies and puffs. He loves toast with jam. He eats all sorts of veggies and fruits with his cereal. His favorite is the Sprout brand bananas and brown rice. He just smacks his lips the whole time when I feed him that. It's so cute! He is now is size 3 diapers. He is in mostly 9 month clothing, or 6-12 mo. clothing. I'm not really sure what size shoe he wears because I don't really put any on him at the moment. He's not really interested in trying to walk with me holding his hands or anything. He's a bit bow-legged and just doesn't really care! :) I think he may wear a size 2... I think. I'll have to check.

As far as talking, he's still just making noise. He says the baba, dada, mama, papa, etc. He waves hello and good-bye.

That's what I can think of at the moment! Gotta make sure I get it all down!

Now, as for Madilyn... my sweet little girl who thinks she's ALL grown up. 

She is looking less like a baby, and more like a little girl every day. I looked at pictures and videos of her just last year, and I'm realizing how much of her baby looks she's lost. It made me so sad!

She's getting quite independent. She likes to dress herself, undress herself, go potty by herself... you're getting the theme here right? When she wants a snack, she gets the chair, brings it to the pantry, and gets it... yup, herself! 

She has had some dance lessons last month, and this month we have put dance lessons on hold for some swimming lessons. Being that we live less than a block away from our community pool, I knew it was going to be important to get her into swimming lessons, and quick! She's timid around water (which I find kind of nice) and scared of getting water in her face. She's taking lessons from a very sweet lady named "Ms. Joy" who has grandchildren around Madi's age, and is very very good with Madilyn. She's very patient, and great at getting Madilyn slowly comfortable with swimming. She is currently having lessons 2 times per week. Madilyn really looks forward to them!

Her favorite food is: Pizza! No surprise there! It has been pizza for... as long as she's been able to eat it. She loves tacos, pasta with pesto, carrots, peas, doughnuts (duh...), goldfish (she'd eat just this if I let her), cheerios, peaches, mandarin oranges, hotdogs, tomatoes... the list could go on! She's a pretty good eater. She is very good at trying. She will usually take at least 1 bite. I've worked hard on that, and I am glad that she will at least try new things. We've also worked very hard on manners. I want to have a little lady, you know? She is getting better at her pleases and thank-yous.

She has also started to ask to pray out loud. She likes to pray for our meals, and at bed time. It's so precious! I don't always understand all of it, but I know God is smiling! I love to see her curious about God, and asking questions and wanting to talk to him. The other day we were sitting out on the front porch while it was raining and all of a sudden she told me she wanted to talk to Jesus. I said "ok, we can do that". So she yells "JESUS!" at the top of her lungs! Then she told me that He didn't hear her! :) It was so neat to try to explain to her that Jesus is always with her and can always hear her, even if she just talks to Him in her head. She's so smart and inquisitive for just being 3! She also has such a tender heart. She doesn't understand why people would be mean, for no reason. Now, she's not always incredibly kind when her little brother starts to suck on Lightening McQueen (her favorite toy car), or suck on her barbie Tinker Bell, but she really is so tender and sweet with him. Other people too though. Like, the other day she thought she might have accidentally hurt her Grandma, and she had to call her and make sure she was ok. She would not stop talking about it until she made sure Grama was ok. I hope she never loses that sweetness and love for others. I also love how when we go to places like the park, or pool, she asks me if friends will be there. Now, she doesn't necessarily mean her friends that she knows, she means any kids. Any and all kids that  will be there, at any age are her friends. Automatically. :)

For preschool and kindergarten at the least I have decided that I am going to be homeschooling. As the kids get older, I can look into other options, but at the moment, I've decided that's what is going to work best for us. There are such great homeschool coops in the area where I can get involved and Madilyn can interact with other kids her age, and I can get to know other moms that homeschool. I am excited! I also just felt like I wasn't ready to entrust my child into peoples hands that I didn't know. I don't know... it might also be all of the news lately about people in authority positions that we are supposed to trust, who hurt children. I know I need to trust God with my children, but there is free will. And because there is free will, and we are not puppets, there is evil in the world. And, as a parent, it's my job to protect my sweet children from evil as much as I can. As they are still so  little, I am feeling a bit like a momma bear who still thinks that I need to keep my cubs in the cave. :) Hopefully I won't be that mom who has bars on her windows when they are teenagers and keep them cocooned in their room to keep them from skinning their knee... I'm working on it! I just love them too much. :)

So... that's my "catching up" points. I seem to only have time to blog about 1x per month now that I have 2 little ones running around here! At least I do though, I love that I will be able to look back at this and remember this time.

God bless!

Levi was 8 months old on 6/19/12!

Here's a few pictures from the last 8 months... he sure is getting longer huh? I couldn't get a good one with him smiling for his 8 month picture. He's teething, and it was his nap time. Oh well!

A few things he's done this month:

He has 2 teeth! His 1st tooth came in as his bottom front right on 6/10, and his second one came in right next to it on 6/16. I am pretty sure the top ones will be coming in soon, because he has been up at least once per night almost every night for the last week. He is also going thru a growth spurt! I weighed myself, and then him on the scale today. It said he was almost 19 pounds... but I'm thinking that's wrong... I just don't think he's that heavy! I guess we'll find out next month at his 9 month appt! 

He's a big eater! He LOVES to eat! 

He's still nursing 5-6 times per day. He also has cereal with fruit and veggies 3 times per day. He LOVES bananas! Like, LOVES. He also likes squash, peas (canned or cooked frozen), carrots (canned), couscous, oatmeal cereal, blueberries, prunes, pears, apples, sweet potatoes... the list goes on! He really prefers the sweets, but we're working on the veggies. He still kinda gags on cheerios, but he does like puffs, and Rice Krispies. 

He's a momma's boy! He is very attached, and would like for me to hold him a lot of the time!

He's VERY good at his tummy time. He rolls around, and can crawl BACKWARDS, and roll every where. He rolled out of the room, to where I freaked out because I couldn't find him, just the other day! He can get around pretty quickly for not being able to crawl!

He can sit up quite well, it's just when he decides to fling himself back excessively hard that we have a problem. Yup, he still does that!

He adores his big sister, and will sit and watch her and giggle at her when I'm trying to nurse him. There are several times where I just have to have her go else where so that I can feed him. He won't pay attention when she's around!

He waved back at Grama for the first time the other day! We are working on waving, and certain signs for sign language.

He is taking 2 naps per day, and they are 1 1/2 to 2 hours each. 

His bedtime is still right around 7:30 each night.

Madilyn is 3, and a GREAT helper! She's just such a sweet big sister. She has started dance classes at the dance studio that is about 3 or 4 blocks from our house. It's 1x per week for about 45 minutes. She's adorable! She poses, and dances around, and then of course demonstrates it for me after class. She LOVES it! She's a very good listener, and is doing quite well. Yesterday she fell and hurt her tailbone, but she bounced back quickly (no pun intended) and she's back to her happy self today.

She loves her brother so much, but we do have to remind her to be gentle. She doesn't quite know her strength. She is starting to get upset, because Levi is starting to get into her toys. We try to have the rule (for now) that if she doesn't want him holding a toy he has, she has to bring him something else to play with before she takes it away. We'll have to come up with something different I am sure when he gets older.

Well, I was going to write more, but I have dinner to clean up, a baby with a poopy diaper, and a 3 year old who wants juice.... till next time!
God bless!

Madilyn's 3rd birthday party

She's 3! This was the morning of her party.

Madilyn and her best friend Kyle

Running! :)

and pose...

the cute doggie

Sweet Levi

Madilyn about to ride the horsie

getting directions

first trip!

then Preston...

then Kyle

now getting to feed the horse an apple!

and Preston got to

and Kyle

Then Madilyn got to brush the horse!

Madi and Kyle eating pizza at her favorite place, Cici's pizza

Happy Birthday to my Madilyn!

The cake! (Publix cake with M&M's on it, idea from pinterest)

She opened her gifts and cards. She got lots of fun things!!

At the end of the day, she was one happy girl!

3 year update for Madilyn

Madilyn's 3rd birthday was a while ago, and a lot has happened since then.... but I want to document it to remember!
At her 3 year checkup, Madilyn was 26 pounds, and 35.5" tall.
She's a petite little thing! :)
Things she does:
She's a parrot! I need to seriously watch everything I say, because she quickly copies anything and everything I say. She's such a sweetheart. She has a very tender and loving spirit too. For example: Grama was putting her in the van, and the door started to close on Grama. When we left we had to call grama to make sure she was ok. Madilyn was so concerned that she needed kisses on her boo-boo, or that she needed a bandaid.
Also, the other day, Madilyn was hitting daddy in the face with her stuffed pony. John told her not to do it, and she did it again. He told her not to 3 times, and she kept doing it. When he told her she was going to get a time out, she said... "but daddy, it wasn't me! It was PONY that didn't listen!". So, daddy proceeded to give pony a time out in the corner for not listening. Then, when pony was given back to Madilyn, pony was promptly scolded by Madilyn to be a good listener. :)
Her favorite things:
PIZZA (Ci-Ci's pizza or Little Caesars are her favorite)
She likes to wear socks, any time and any where. Pulled ALL THE WAY UP. :)
She likes leggings. Will NOT wear jeans. Will wear a dress or shorts, but prefers leggings.
She loves to twirl.
She prefers her hair DOWN, and long like Rapunzel. :)
She's very good with her little brother, and they play and giggle together. (He doesn't get into her toys yet... we shall see what happens then!)
She is definitely an outside girl. She wants to go to the park any time of the day, or to the pool. She just loves being outside.
Her favorite cartoon is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. But, she also likes Octonauts, Doc Mcstuffins and Super Why.
Her favorite movies are still the Cars movies, but she just recently saw Tangled, and really liked that. She also really loves anything with Tinkerbell in it.
She LOVES to run! ALL THE TIME! :)
She's a talker! She's either sleeping, or talking. And she's loud too. Nothing is ever quiet. I can't tell you how many times I have to shush her in a day... but everything is so passionately spoken! :)
She likes to dress herself. It's usually quite comical, and does require some help from mommy, but she does pretty good! Most of the time it doesn't match, or go well together... but its still cute!
She loves to sing. She will make up songs with Grama, or by herself, and just sings all the time!
Her favorite color is pink, and she wants to be a ballerina.
When she wears her ballerina outfits (we are going to put her in dance "lessons"), and I scold her she looks at me and says "mommy, I JUST a ballerina!". I am never quite sure what that has to do with the fact that she's in trouble... but she seems to think that it explains everything...
She loves the story of Peter walking on the water, and Jesus calming the storm. She will ask for me or daddy to tell it numerous times a day. She says, "mommy/daddy, can we talk about Jesus and Peter?".
We love to read books together. She likes to read the same ones over and over again. She ends up memorizing them, and can tell you the whole story and knows if you say something wrong. :)
She is such a good girl. I truly treasure her. I do get exasperated with her way to quickly some days... I know every mother wishes for more patience... but I am truly blessed. She's a sweet, tenderhearted beautiful girl that I am blessed to have been given the privilege of raising. It's a big job! I can't wait to see what comes this next year!

Levi was 7 mo old 5/19/12

Finally getting to this post, and it's gonna be a quick one! Levi was 7 mo on 5/19/12, and he is getting cuter by the second! He's wild and crazy, and adorable and sweet! He rolls EVERYWHERE! He had looked like he was going to crawl a few times, and then decided against it. At his checkup he was just under 16 lbs, and that was a couple of weeks ago. He measured right around the 50th to 60th percentile for everything. I'll have to get my paper to get the real #s on here later. He's such a verbal baby too. He loves to just "talk" by making noises constantly. He likes the jumperoo, or the johnny-jump-up a lot. He's starting on cheerios and "mum-mums". He loves his baby cereal too! He nurses 5x per day, and eats cereal 3x per day. He's a hungry little man! He goes to bed around 7:30p, and wakes up around 7 or 7:30a. (I am still nursing him 1 more time around 9p). He adores his big sister Madilyn. He shows his love like a typical boy by pulling her hair, kicking her and squealing at her, or slobbering all over her face. :) He's typically happy unless he's hungry or tired. This sweet boy rarely cries. He's just very content. He still does not like to sit on his own. He CAN, don't get me wrong... he just doesn't want to. He will still aggressively FLING himself back... to the point where I either put something behind him, or sit behind him to practice sitting for fear that he will give himself a concussion. He's crazy! :) He prefers bananas still, to any and all food. LOVES bananas. He smacks his lips! :)
Well, I'll have to add more later, but that's it for now! My sweet boy is growing up too quickly, I can't keep up! :)
I'll be posting Madilyn's 3rd birthday stuff too.. about 1 1/2 mo behind! WOAH!

UPDATE: Levi was 15.62 lbs (10th percent) Head was 25th percent... and I had 43" written down... lol! That is DEFINITELY not what it was... and length was 26 1/2" (50th percent). Madilyn was 15 lbs at 6 months, and also was 26 1/2". :) Pretty close!

Fox News interview

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/17961149/investigators-under-diagnosing-lyme-disease

My Aunt was interviewed in a very eye opening interview about her Lyme's Disease. It's not even just in MN... I found a tick on Madilyn here in SC last summer. Be careful!

Levi's 6 months, and a bit more...

Levi was 6 mo old on April 19th. He is definitely my sweet little boy! He's so funny too. He loves to lay on his back and play and coo. He rolls all around the room, and doesn't sit still. He squirms and rolls and kicks constantly. I have a feeling that when he starts crawling, I'll be a very busy momma! He knows how to sit up, but it's a bit dangerous... he seems to be under the impression that when he's sitting up, if he throws his head back REALLY hard, he'll suddenly be standing up. Instead, of course, he just hits his head REALLY hard against the ground and gets boo-boos. :(  So... while practicing sitting up, I must either sit behind him, or put the bumbo behind him to prevent concussions and major head injuries. ;)

We have been in MN, so we have not had his 6 mo check up yet... I'm looking forward to see how much he weighs... he's feeling quite heavy lately!! I took the below picture on the 17th, 2 days before he turned 6 mo... because we took him to MN, and I didn't want to forget!

Our trip to MN was so fun! I sooo enjoyed getting to see all of my family, and my close friend Michelle. It was really relaxing, and I got to go to all of the places I really missed.

My friend Michelle in front of our past favorite hangout... which we both worked at.. Caribou Coffee!

Me and my kids with her sweet family.

Madi and Emma. Emma is 5... and about 4 feet tall! :)

Levi and my sweet Aunt Karri

Levi and my cousin Ethan

Levi and Gigi

Madi opening her birthday present from her Auntie Dawn and Uncle Paul. She got a Madeline doll and book!

She also got some cute window clings. They stayed on my aunts window while we were there... they are now on her bedroom window and she is always pulling them off and putting them back on her window.

My cousin Shari and Levi

Madi and Tim (my cousin Marie's husband) playing a game of checkers! :)

My old Caribou! This is where I worked @ 16... I didn't know any of the workers, but it was fun to go back.

My old house! Only lived here for 3 years before we moved south, but it was my favorite place.

Mall of America!

She's excited about rides!

Daddy and Madi are gonna ride the balloons!

Riding the Swiper cars

She didn't love them... 

but she did love the cookie!

and the train!

The roller coaster my husband went on.. straight up...

and straight back down! Crazy!

On the carousel!

my cousin Marie and Levi

Shari and I

Madi in the doggie beds :)

Kalli and Madi... she got a sucker, so she wouldn't put it down for a pic

Levi kept pulling Kalli's hair and glasses :)

some love for Auntie Karri

and Uncle Mark :)

Silly pic!

 Yup, that's a grape... :)

Levi and Marie

Levi with my cousins Kiersten and Marie

Levi checking out the fish at the "Sea Life" aquarium that we went to that's under the Mall of America.

Swinging at the park with Emma

They checked out the pond @ the park. One thing I LOVE about MN, NO FIRE ANTS! Madi got to run around and roll around in the grass, and I didn't have to freak out. She was in heaven!

Found a snail daddy! (Mommy was freaking out... sanitizing was done after this!)

Levi enjoying the sights :)

hmm... what, 19 years later... we look a bit different!

so sad to be saying goodbye to my sweet friend

Madi and daddy taking the "tram" down to the lake at my aunt and uncles house

Madi loved throwing rocks into the lake!

Madi and daddy spent a few evenings down there before bed time

Right before we headed out to the airport, Auntie Dawn took her down there too

Here they are riding back up the "tram" from spending time by the lake

Last pic I could fit on my card... in the airplane, heading home!

We had a great time! On the way home, we had a layover in D.C., and didn't get home till about12:45a... it took us a couple days to recover, and a couple more days to unpack! I'm thinking we're finally getting closer to our normal schedule. 

My sweet girl turned 3 on April 17th.... I'll have to put that in another post... that's WAY too many pictures to add onto here. :)

God bless!