A few more pictures

Uncle Jim shows off Samuel's new hair do.. he made for him.

Quality reading time before bed.

Amelia had some issues with the lake... she did not care for the weeds, the sand was too hot or "yucky" to walk in, etc, etc, etc. This girl sometimes can be so fussy ( I wonder where she gets that from?!) Finally after several days she seemed to warm up to the idea of swimming in a lake, not a pool, and even played in the sand some. We have realized she likes to be neat, girly, and not dirty. We are trying to get her to expand her horizons a bit, but if she's anything like her mother she will always have a preference for a bathroom, curling iron, resort over roughing it.

What "camping" experience wouldn't be complete without a campfire and smores! It was 90's with high humidity everyday but we did make a campfire 2 nights. Amelia enjoyed her first smore (she did not like that her fingers got "yucky" though)

We forgot marshmellow sticks so my boyscout husband improvised and whittled out some sticks.

Great memories of a wonderful week!

More cabin pictures

After a week away I have a lot of pictures that are just too cute not to post. Maybe I'm not exactly referring to the one above, but it was fun for David and I to have some adult time with Grandparents that could babysit. We enjoyed walks, and kayaking on the lake.

Oh Deer! They were everywhere. We saw them drinking from the lake, right by our fire pit and and on our walks. One of my favorite stories is when Jim went out for a night time walk. He was walking and noticed something white in the woods. He wondered why there was a man wearing white gloves waiving in the summer. He then realized it was a deer! Jim is not too fond of deer so to hear him tell the story (and how he ran home) is hilarious.

Cousins! These kids have so much fun together and play well when they are together. The house provided plenty of play areas (and air-conditioning to cool off after playing outside) A favorite activity became jumping off the fireplace rocks.

The resort had several different types of boats... canoes, kayaks, and row boats. Jim and David took the kids out in a row boat to explore the lake.

Grandma and Samuel sit on the dock and observe.

Cabin Trip

Last week was our annual cabin trip with my family. Each year we (mostly mom and dad)pick a new place and each year we say it is the best ever. This year we headed to Heartwood Resort near Trego, WI. Our first time in Wisconsin. We were able to extend the time a little from previous years and be there Sun- Fri. It once again proved to be a wonderful week-- the weather was perfect (sunny, high 90's, no rain). The house was the most spacious we've had and nicely fit everyone, and the resort offered lots of fun activities, so for the first time ever we are going back to the same place!! We have booked the same house for a full week. Here are some fun pictures from our time. It is so much fun to watch the cousins play so well together and the adults have a relaxation time away.

A view of the lake from the main building. Isaac at first called it a frog pond because of all the lilly pads but the swimming area did have a nice beach.

No, this was not our house. This is the main building. It housed the hotel rooms, conference center rooms, and exercise room. They are building on a pool and hopefully it will be finished by next year.

Group picture at the end of the week... always interesting with all the kids.

My family--- Thanks mom and dad for hosting a wonderful week for us. Dad, I think we have finally found "our" place.

It's Done!

A view from the window
After working early mornings, evenings and between rain storms, David has finally finished the swing set! It has really been quite the process, but I'm so proud of him and the final product is wonderful. As you can tell from Amelia's face she is excited with her "new park" She did however after playing on the playset for awhile ask to go to the "blue park" AAAH!

The first slide down.... it brought tears to my eyes to think of how much work and love went into this playset and how many hours of enjoyment we will have in the years to come. The proud daddy looks on... notice his tool belt. It is quite a cute accessory and sure to come in handy on other household projects.. an early father's day gift.

My funny brother Jim.
He and Isaac came over and helped with the last part... the swing arm and slide. They worked in the hot humid day but got it done! Thanks Jim your help was much appreciated.

More of the finished product... wow! If you look close you can see all the details of the rock wall, cafe by the sand box, flower box!! and tent canopys.

By the way if you saw the first post you would have seen the neighbor's swingset... ours covers it now! Now onto the shed!

Sisters in Christ

Today I had a wonderful opportunity to meet up with a dear friend in Christ. Jenny traveled with our team when I was in Africa on a mission trip in 1996. She become a fun companion to us girls and even though miles separated us we have kept in touch occasionally throughout the years. She is studying in the states now and was in Minnesota for the LB convention. What a joy to hear what God is doing in her life. She is training to go back to Africa and start a ministry with children through the radio. In our brief time it was fun to catch up.

Becky and Goody Stenoin hosted us in their lovely building. Suzanne Stennes- Rogness brought Jenny for the visit. They had been missionaries in Africa so we had fun sharing pictures and memories of our times there.

A Busy Fun Day

Today has been a busy day for me. It started by waking up and waiting for my friends from church to come and play. We often get people there confused because we look alike. We have even thrown off our mom's from the back. We enjoyed playing downstairs, upstairs, and with just about every toy. Lunch was yummy too. I'm looking forward to our next playdate soon.

Practicing our piano skills

Then in the evening we got to go out for supper with my mom's uncle Ernie who was driving through the cities. I haven't seen him in a long time but I sure enjoyed meeting him. It was also grand because my cousins got to come over and play and mom and dad let me stay up late.

My Uncle Jim had to get in on the story time too.
I love these busy social days!----- Amelia

On a side note, Amelia's mom is still recovering from yesterday's busy social schedule. It's funny to me how we can go weeks without having much going on and then it seems to pile up in one day. I (like Amelia) love hosting people over and I'm always reminded I have to do it more often.

Coming Soon....

A NEW PLAYSET!
I bet some of you thought I was going to say a baby or a dog, right. Ha! I got you. We are undertaking project #2 as project #1. Here's the story. We were planning on building a storage shed and a playset this summer. Instead of looking at one thing at a time we decided to merge both of them together. The poor guy at menards had no clue whether I was referring to the shed or playset at different times. Anyways we decided it might be better to do the playset first to let the kids get a summer of enjoyment out of it. The garage is crowded, but a shed could wait till later in the summer or fall (definately before the snow). So with that decided we set out to find which playset we wanted. So many options! We finally decided on a precut, predrilled, prestained unit from Toys R US. It was last years models, but with the same features as this years but less money. I figured with all the predone things it would be easy for David to put together... ha! The directions say 2 people it will take 8-12 hours. Reviews we were reading on the website give it much longer. David did learn some valuable tips though about organizing the pieces. Thursday night we picked up the 4 boxes and unloaded them in the garage. By the way the above playset you see in the background is the neigbors.

Unloading the boxes... doesn't look that hard, right. One of the boxes weighed 200lbs

David set right to work organizing the boards. He was like a kid in a candy store. I'm always amazed by his ability to do projects. I don't give him enough credit. He works fast and sometimes that makes me nervous but he is so good at reading and following directions and the end result is always good. I give him a lot of credit for taking on this big project. He has some help available next weekend but he is working hard to get as much done as he can by himself.
After coming home from work on Saturday he had most of the frame for the tower section put together and needed my help to lift them up. By saturday night he was to step 4a of 30 some!
Stay tuned for further pictures and updates!! The end result will be amazing

Picture Time

Yeah! I'm so excited I have figured out how to show these pictures (off a web site)! Recently I took Samuel in for his 9 month pictures. I do pictures every 3 months till 1 year and then yearly (or at holidays sometimes). I love pictures but as they get older it gets harder to get them to sit still, smile, etc. I come away exhausted and sometimes without the "exact look" I wanted. This time with Samuel was especially interesting. I chose a 6:40 time thinking David could watch Amelia and then help me pick pictures. Samuel seemed more interested in crawling away, covering his face, or fussing. These are the few we got. Actually in looking at them again they do capture him as he usually is. However we did not order these... we came back for a second sitting 3 days later. Those are not on JCP's website so you'll just have to come by to see them.

Coller is out of place.. yes, mommy is fussy about these things!

Kind of a smile?

Same exact pose as his 6 month picture... just a different outfit.

Amelia style

I'm constantly amazed by Amelia and her sense of fashion. I'm thinking that this may become a regular feature on the blog. This is often how I find Amelia walking around the house... wearing a dress and walking in an old pair of my high heeled shoes. She is quite proficient at walking in them and can even do a slow jog! Amelia would wear a dress everyday if I would let her. I realized that when I say "Let's get dressed." she assumes that means a dress. I have had to watch my word choices carefully and on days where pants/shorts would be more practical I have to say "Lets get some clothes on."

Of course what girl wouldn't be complete without her baby stroller and barbies inside to push around on her walks.

Showing off the shoes and some leg. By the way the open mouth you see on all the pictures is now how Amelia smiles for pictures.

The story of the Goggles
Amelia loves bath time but hates getting her hair washed and the water in her eyes. We have tried different buckets, showers, etc but the end result is always the same... tears and a meltdown. We decided maybe we would try some goggles. They will also come in handy when we go to the lake cabin for a week soon. Of course we found princess Ariel ones and Amelia enjoyed wearing them around the house before bathtime. If you think this is a funny picture you should have seen her in the pink speedo swim hat we tried on (for the lake to protect her ears) David and I were laughing so hard in the store... however we ended up not getting it as it seemed a bit tight for her head.