Christmas Outtakes

Kimber having fun with new toys from Papa and Mimi. Snuggle time with Daddy. The favorite time of the day for both of them.

Our sad looking Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! lol oh well. It was a very amazing and blessed Christmas with our family.

Looking all Fancy for Church.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND

HAPPY NEW YEARS

2009

Hope this finds you all well and happy this Christmas. Not much is new with us. Eric is still working with American Family Insurance this will be going on his 6th year. This is my 3rd year with Head Start. Kimber will be 2 in Jan. and it seems like just yesterday we brought her home. How time goes by too quickly. Kimber is a girly girl and loves everything from her books, puzzles, dress-up, baby dolls to playing sports. (That would be her daddy's doing!) We were blessed to spend some time with Eric's family this summer over the 4th of July. We have no travel plans for the coming year yet. We are hoping to take a trip just not sure where to yet. If any of you are looking to take a trip it is nice here in the summers. You are welcome to come visit.

Hope this Christmas and New Years brings you much happiness and joy! Have a great 2010!

Fun Times

So for those of you wondering where we have disappeared to, here is a little bit to help fill in the spaces. We had the chance to take a week and spend some time in Missouri with Eric's family and a very short day trip to see some of my family. We were gone for about a week there and since returning last week we have been go, go, go. Eric and I both came back and had to go back to work and then we spent this weekend at the lake with some friends. Taking it all in stride we also brought home a new puppy yesterday. And for those of you wondering...no I am not crazy. At least not yet, I don't think! haha. I will try not to over do the pics on this post!!! Since my camera has about 200+ pics from the past 3 weeks on it now. Can you tell I love pics?

One of my first trips to the park . Mommy and me at the top of the yellow tunnel slide.

Eric, Monica, Kimber, Jim, Nichole, and Ryan pic left to right at the park with us. It was a fun day thank you for going with us.

The next day we meet Sandi (a friends mom) at the park and Kimber had another great day playing. She took a spill this day and scraped up her nose and lip but it is healing and there is little sign of where it was now but if you know where to look you can still see a little pink spot. I am sure you will notice he bumps in the pics below.Here Kimber is at Build A Bear for the first time making a Panda with Aunt Misty!

Here I am putting in my Panda's heart. As you can tell there are a few pics of this experience because mommy had never been to a Build a Bear either so I think I was probably just as excited as Kimber was!! hehe.Thank You Aunt Misty!!! I LOVE MY PANDA. The panda has a little thing in it that tells her he loves her and she tells him I ouve oo too, in Kimber language..this is how she says love you too. :)

Me by the water fountain, just not too close I don't want to get my feet wet. Thank you so much for everything Misty we had a blast and Kimber now says go bye bye, go shop! hehe she is too smart for her own good...but I thought you would find that funny.

One of my favorite things at Grandma's was the dishes and dumping water in the pool.

Here I am with my new baby I picked out all by myself and the baby stroller.

Her shirt said Being Sweet (is a full time job)...I think it should have said...Being Spoiled (is a full time job). She had so much fun and has played with all the toys and love it all so much...THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone. Kimber (and us) all had such a wonderful time. Nanner bought her a purse and phone and now she really can be like mommy and get her purse and phone before leaving for the day! Trust me...she does too. Its a morning thing, go bye bye...I tell her yes we go bye bye...okay...get shoes, my shoes, and then she once she has shoes on she says purse on...meaning mommy find my purse and put it on my shoulder...just like you! haha it is too funny to see when all this is happening in the morning.Sometimes drive me nuts and other times I have to remind myself she is learning and I just need to slow down and let her have her moments.

When mommy would say Cheese I thought I needed to take her pic too.

Here we are on our way home. My Panda and me are both wearing red, white, and blue for the 4th of July. We thought we would see lots of fireworks driving home on the 4th...and we maybe saw 4-6 fireworks. I mean like one firework here and one there not 4-6 displays...we were kind of sad about that but Kimber was asleep by this time anyway so oh well. Another time.

Here I am home finally with my puppy Leia! Poor Leia, Kimber laid on her for prob 10 min like this she was so happy to see her. I think she thought if she trapped her she would never have to leave her again.

Later that day we went up and saw our newest addition to the family...Harley. We used to have 2 dogs inside and then a few yrs ago our male dog was hit by a car and since then our other puppy Leia has seemed lonely so we thought she might like a companion. We will see...today is day 2 of new puppy at home and she is still not too fond of him...but isn't he CUTE?? I like dogs too much.

Here I am reading some new books to my Bear. She sat and read to him for probably 45 min that day. She loves looking at books.
Here I am with baby in my lap teaching her she needs to like watching Jack's Music Show with me in the mornings.
I think you would have to agree mommy was excited to get the new puppy but so was Kimber. This was the puppy Kimber picked out of her choices and she loves him so much she crawled in bed to play with him! She has a big personality. Wonder who she got that from?? wink wink!Well Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible and memorable for us. It was so wonderful to see all of you and hope you can make it up our way sometime soon...a year is just too long. We have plenty of extra space for you to stay with us:) I will post pics of our fun in the sun at the lake another night...it has taken me forever to upload all these pics and I tried to keep it to a minimum. Hope you enjoy and we will try to send out some pics to you all soon. Hope you enjoyed our update and thank you again. You mean the world to us and we love you and miss you all already. Good night!

Random...Doctors, Weddings, and Travel Plans

Well another month has come and gone and I am left feeling dazed and confused. I have the feeling I should write something but still dazed and confused and not even sure where to start. So I will start at the beginning I guess.
Not too long after our last post I had some medical problems and was in and out of the doctors a lot ...only to not receive any answers. This leaves me feeling frustrated, hurt, and a sense of helplessness. Now that June is here we are busy, busy, and even more busy!!! The distraction has been nice to keep my mind occupied.
Eric was asked to sing at 2 weddings this month. Today was actually the first one and the other wedding will take place next weekend. I am so proud of him and the gift God has given him to use. Kimber and I love hearing him sing...sometimes we "try" to join in ...lol. More Kimber then mommy;) Today at the wedding as Eric is finishing the song Kimber lets out a big DADDY ... yeah!!! I guess she thought he was great. I am sure the older she gets the harder it will be for her to understand she has to sit while daddy sings and not cheer for him all the time ... at least out loud. We will have to work on cheering quietly inside?? if that makes any sense. :)
There are moments I truly do not know how single parents make it. For me today was the epitome of one of these moments. We had an awesome morning. I had been checking on prices of trees to plant around the edge of our driveway and yard and had my socks knocked off when I called a local nursery and asked for prices. So thankfully I have amazing parents who after telling them what I wanted to do went out and dug up about 30 of the trees I wanted off of their farm and helped me transplant them!!! Was so super excited and thankful to be able to get the trees and the project done that I wanted. We are about 3/4 of the way done and will have to wait until next year to get more starts to transplant. We are well on our way though which makes me feel wonderful. Now for the second half of the day and mommy feeling like a complete failure. Then at lunch Kimber would not eat anything. Just fussy and not happy with anything. So I laid her down for her nap and after this we got ready for a weeding and needless to say Kimber and I were only able to stay for Eric's song and then had to leave because Kimer was just not having it. We tried staying for the reception and that was a mistake on my part. Kimber ended up with diarrhea and I think may have a touch of the flu. In a moment of weakness after trying to comfort her with no success and lots of screaming and tears on her part...mommy was at her breaking point and had to have a friend get Eric from the reception. We had been out in the nursery at the church and Kimber was just screaming when I held her and cried when I put her down to play with toys. I just couldn't do anything to get her to calm down. At this point I was crying too since I didn't know what was wrong and Kimber was burning up hot, and I was not having any success with anything to comfort her we came home. Kimber still cried but I was feeling relieved to be home and in my own comfort zone of being able to sit and talk to her and not have people looking at me like what in the world is wrong with that kid! Thankfully she is sleeping for now. She didn't want any supper either but ate a few Cheerios so hopefully she will have more of an appetite tomorrow. I give single parents credit...not sure how they do it. If it had not been for Eric saying lets go home and help comfort me while feeling helpless I am not sure how I would make it some days. He is an awesome husband and daddy in so many ways. Thanks honey for all you do for both of us.
Humm...what else is new??
We are also planning a trip at the end of the month which is approaching very fast! augh where does time go? I have already started packing and realizing YIKES!!! Kimber has more stuff to take then Eric and I do. Being so little I think you feel like you pack everything except the kitchen sink. Although if it would fit there are times I would like to bring it as well...haha. We will be visiting some of Eric's family and some of mine as well in the week we are there. It will be a busy week.
Work is going well for both of us. With the economy and all the job cuts and layoffs in our area we are blessed to both be employed. I am so thankfully that I am able to work from home part of the time. In the fall my job is sending me back to school. So I will be taking two night classes about an hour from home. Not looking forward to the night driving but other then that it should be okay. My mom said she would help with Kimber until Daddy gets home to take over:).
Well I think that is all the updates we have for now...when I think of more we will post them. Sorry it has been so long ... with it being summer and I am still working full time this year through the summer it is hard to keep up. We hope this finds you all well and we hope to hear from you all soon. Love to all. Take care until next time. God Bless!

Where do I start?

Wow! There is so much going on here I am not sure I know where to start. I guess I will say I have taken a break from being on my computer so much for the past couple weeks and it has been SO nice. A little less technology is a blessing at times. It helps you to refocus and remember what is first and most important in your life and for us the is our little family.
Kimber really has enjoyed going to the park recently. She loves the swings but even more then that she has discovered the slide...yikes...she is a daredevil. She does not slow down and when she sees another older child do something she thinks she should be able to do the same. haha Her little legs are not always able to accomplish these tasks yet...thankfully. :) We have thought of going back to the pool but have not made it there yet. Maybe in the next couple weeks I will get it together and venture out there again. As far as other things going on with Kimber wow talk about hitting that 15 mo. marker and taking off!!! She surprises me each day with something new lately I just stand in awe. Yesterday she was letting me button up her undershirts and I said can you count with mommy and she said...1,2,3,4,5,6!!! TEAR! all by herself. I didn't even get to count with her. It is really fun to see how much she has stored in her mind and just pulls out different things at times when asked to. She knows the colors: yellow, blue, purple, and green really well. We are still working on the rest. Animal sounds that she knows are cow, kitty, elephant, bear, lion, duck, and dog! lol funny story about the dog. We were sitting in church on Sun. and my mom has a dog bookmark in her Bible and Kimber wanted to go sit with my mom for a while. So my mom was letting her turn the pages in her Bible and all of a sudden Kimber stops and looks at me and says doggie, woof woof, doggie, woof woof. I tell you I had the giggles so bad I thought I was going to have to get up and leave for a few min. Thankfully I was able to get myself to stop giggling and mom was able to distract her with something else but I think the back 4 rows know Kimber knows what a dog says. oops! haha I told mom to get rid of that bookmark for a while...we will see if she listens;)
Humm?? What else is new? Kimber is no longer using a Nuk ... she just goes to bed with her monkey, baby and blanket. She eats with her own fork or spoon. She can get it from the plate to her mouth with little spilling. The same goes for her cup. She is off the sippy cup. Unless we are going to the store and she needs one with. At meal time and at home though she uses a normal cup. For me that is huge! I feel like she is growing up too fast and yet when I know she can do these things it is nice for when we are going somewhere...LESS TO PACK:):)
If I knew how to load a video I would ..but since I don't. I was reading a friends blog the other day about how when it was just one child in the house she enjoyed the quiet. Don't get me wrong there are those precious moments I cherish...but they are becoming less. Kimber is just like her daddy in so many ways. One big way is her love and passion for music. The other day I was even letting her play around on the guitar. Today she is finally getting her canine teeth on the bottom to poke through the skin so for all you moms reading this you can about imagine how our day has been...yikes. So instead of turning off the radio...I turned it up and Kimber just started dancing and giggling. I ran and got the video camera. She liked jammin to Matthew West! lol
I think that is all the updates I have about Kimber. Eric and I are doing rather well. The weather has been nice off and on so when it has been nice we are trying to take advantage of being outside because we can tell the days are limited for nice weather up here in the North. Today it is raining so I am sure it is going to be a day spent inside. :( We are hoping to get the bikes out soon and start biking. We didn't get much of this in last year but hope to this year.
My parents are going on vacation for the next week. I am going to miss them but if you think of it please pray that they have safe travels. My mom was just driving in Bagley yesterday and when she pulled out a semi was coming around a corner and was going to fast and she was almost hit. Thankfully God was watching out for her because the semi swerved and was able to miss her but it was close. So I am coming to realize that my parents are getting older and some of the simple tasks we do each day are getting harder for them. They are driving to see family out of state so it is going to be a lot of driving time and with a close call like that the day before they leave makes me have some feelings of worry. I know God will watch over them ...but a few extra prayers won't hurt:)
May is probably going to go by even faster then April did. I felt like I blinked and missed April! It went by so fast. We hope this month leaves you feeling fulfilled. For those of you that know the song The Motions by Matthew West that is how I have been feeling lately. I don't want to just go through the Motions. For those of you who don't know the song...look it up...its a great song. Here are a few words from the song. I will leave you with this...if this does not spark your interest to look up the song I am not sure what will.
This might hurt it's not safe but I know that I've gotta make a change I don't care if I break at least I'll be feeling something 'cause just ok is not enough help me fight through the nothingness of life I don't wanna go through the motions I don't wanna go one more day without your all consuming passion inside of me I don't wanna spend my whole life asking what if I had given everything? instead of going through the motions.
Every time I hear this song it hits my heart. I hope you may have the same reaction. Hope you have a wonderful day, week, and rest of the month. Enjoy and God Bless.

Happy Anniversary Honey

Just wanted to say Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband. Today we celebrated 5 years together. Eric had to work. I took the day off and cooked a supper for the two of us.Kimber and I dressed up for when Daddy came home. Kimber is wearing her new dress from Uncle Ry-Ry. Thank you. Kimber loved that the baby had the same dress on as she did. :)Kimber giving her baby hugs. We have no plans for the rest of the weekend. I am happy to say I am caught up on paperwork for work. The house is already clean since I cleaned for our anniv. supper. So we are probably going to just hang out at home. I hope all is well with everyone.
I know I promised to write about my shopping trip but it was kind of a bust. I went to Wal-Mart because I needed a few things I could not pick up at Target. The clerk was very rude when she saw I had coupons and then when some of them would not go threw she just handed them back and said they wouldn't take them. The ones she was having trouble with was the printable ones and I have used them there before and not had any trouble. I still saved a little but I was annoyed that about $15 dollars worth of coupons would not scan...or should I say the cashier would not use the scan gun instead of the till to try and scan them in. Ugh. I am not sure where the best place to shop is anymore. I get tired of going to Target all the time and yet I am not able to get all the food items I want there because it is not a Super Target or I would love shopping there. Anyways I am thinking about just trying to shop the sales at the local 2 grocery stores and use coupons there and plan meals around sale items and see if I can keep within the budget for groceries. It is just hard since one of the grocery stores is brand new and kind of over priced and the other one is the only one in town so they don't have any price competition. One is in Fosston and the other one is in Bagley so I will have to do some price comparing. It is all trial and error I guess. :) I will keep trying. Anyways I will quit rambling. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. A big Thank You to my wonderful husband who has been there for me for the last 5 years and a great dad to our beautiful little baby girl. I hope the next 5 are as wonderful as the first 5. Good night.

Happy Easter!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!
We hope you had a wonderful and blessed Easter. Here are a few pic to catch up on what has been going on around here. I will try to write more later. It is late but I wanted to post some pic for the family that we were not able to be with for the holiday of Kimber in her Easter dress. We love you and miss you and hope to see you soon. I have a shopping trip planned for this week so I will update you on how I am doing after. Daddy is feeding me snicker salad. Yummy!

So I was ambitious this weekend and guess I started spring cleaning. I cleaned out a closet and made it into what it was supposed to be in the first place...a pantry! Yeah more food storage space. Then I boxed up the baby stuff Kimber no longer uses and moved it upstairs into a storage space. Then Sat. night I decided I was sick of looking at our bathroom floor. We had put down stick tile and some had holes in them from where the house has shifted and nails are popping up so I took up some of the tiles and replaced them with ones that I found in the closet I cleaned out and now our bathroom floor looks way better!!! :) YEAH!!! Sorry for the messy pic of the bathroom but I thought for those of you who don't believe I get my hands dirty...here is the proof. I pulled up some of the tiles and replaced them with new ones.

It was so nice out on Sat while taking a break from cleaning Eric and I took Kimber on her first Spring walk. Here is Kimber and Daddy looking and the river flowing by our driveway.

Kimber walking with Daddy. It was hard to get her to hold hands since she is little Miss Independent. Humm?? Wonder who she took that trait from? I am not telling:)

Come on Dad let me walk all by myself. (Kimber in her mud cloths, when you live in the country you tend to pick a couple outfits to let them just get dirty in. Although I am not sure she will like playing in the mud for a while...she is a girly girl.)

She was calling for the dog to come along! ha ha She loves her animals and loves to tell them to be quiet when they are barking too.

Come on lets get a move on.

We went swimming a couple weeks ago at the local pool.

Poor Kimber YES her lips really were purple. We finally had to take her out. She decided at the end of the time she liked playing in the water and we weren't going to let go. Maybe next time she will enjoy it sooner.