Live Laugh Love.

Well...it's been a stressful overwhelming 3 weeks to say the least.

I have not had much time to blog lately, and the little time I have had I just wasn't in the mood. I am finally back home with the kids this week and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. I have been reminded in these past days that things happen and you shouldn't take things for granted. I don't know why it is that something bad has to happen to be reminded of these things, but I am going to try and remember it from here on out. Life is indeed what you make of it. My goal is to spend as much time as possible with those I love and never take the simple things for granted.

With that said, I have some silly pictures of the kiddos that I just had to post. What a joy they bring to our lives.

With the early snow (yuck) today was a great day for a dance party in the kitchen. The kids had so much fun! Landon of course was break-dancing, truly doing "the worm." I have no idea how they learn these things :)

Grandma Sue being a good sport last week when she was here with the kids. Why is playing doctor so fun?
Yes we have raised thugs! They of course had to trade hats-never happy with their own:)
This picture just cracks me up. Why does it never get old to play horsey? They both just love it, I am pretty sure about 5 seconds after this picture was taken they were all on the ground giggling.

It's amazing how in a time of sadness and stress little people have a way of bringing happiness and getting you through things. I am so thankful that God has blessed our family with these two beautiful and fun-loving children.

Kadence turns 18 Months!!

I can't believe my baby girl is already 18 months old!  

Hard to believe she was this little not that long ago.  It is crazy how fast these little angels grow up.  

Kadence rarely stops moving these days.  She runs around and pretty much keeps up with her brother.  She loves being outside more than anything.  She does not stop talking...EVER.  She loves to play with her babies-but still likes cars and dinosaurs like her big brother.  She has to take at least 3 of her stuffed animals to bed with her and quickly grabs them when she wakes up to bring downstairs.  She has learned to self soothe without her Nuk (thank goodness).  She loves shoes and clothes-and I mean LOVES.  For instance, she once threw a fit at Target when her brother was getting some new shoes-she wanted her own!!  She also has to try on any new clothes as soon as it is out of the bag and then wears it around showing it off (I think we are in trouble).   And...this has been what she has been doing for the past couple weeks.  She is working on her eye teeth and is having a very hard time!  Poor little girl-I hate that there is nothing I can do to make her feel better:(  

Love Love Love you baby Kadee (I can still call her that right?), you brighten my every day!

Sprinklers in September??

Who would have thought I would live somewhere that it is seriously warm enough to run through the sprinkler in September...definitely not Fargo or Northern MN.  This past week it has been in the 80's every day and we are still loving it!  Grandma and Grandpa Strasburg came to town this past weekend and the kids had a riot, like usual.  They played outside in the sprinkler for a long time on Friday!  
It is always fun to have grandparents visit, especially when we have such good ones!  I think the kiddos get tired of playing with Mommy since they do it ALL THE TIME!  Needless to say, I think Gary and Sue were pooped-our kids don't ever stop moving or wanting to play.  

Aunty Arin and Aunty Holly also visited for a little bit which was fun!  There definitely is no such thing as too many aunties.  Our kids are blessed to have the 4 best Aunties!

So here's to another great weekend with great company and great summer weather!

Skowlund Visit

My sister and her family came to visit us and stayed for four days!  We had good weather and were able to do some fun things with the kids.  Landon and Kadence loved having their cousins here to play!  There are a lot of pictures in this post and I have so many more I could have posted!  It's hard when there are 4 kids-so many good ones to choose from!
One day, there was a German fest going on downtown.  We joined in the festivities and also spent some time in Falls Park that day.  The kids loved this big slide and were so patient waiting in the LONG line.

Jill and I were kind of afraid that they would get half-way up and then chicken out, but they both just came right on down!
Kadence's favorite part of the festival was this little train ride!  She didn't quite understand why she couldn't just ride it forever, so she screamed when we took her off.  I think she ended up riding on it 5 times:)  AJ didn't ride until the last ride, he was pretty unsure at first but then liked it by the end of the ride!  
We all went to the Sertoma Butterfly House another day.  We had never been there and decided to check it out.  It was beautiful in there with all of the gorgeous butterflies and plants!  The kids had a great time and somehow understood that they couldn't touch all of the pretty butterflies that were surrounding them.  I think Kadence could have stayed in there all day! She sure loved those "fufferflies."  

My camera fogged up because of the humidity but the pictures are still cute.  Here is Kadence squatting down to look at a butterfly.
Landon and Annabelle taking a break.  They were pretty proud of their butterfly stickers!  The Butterfly House is certainly a neat place, I think we will definitely go back!
Here is Aunty Jill and Annabelle and Landon excited on the way to the zoo!  The kids and I go to the zoo almost weekly, so we wanted to show the Skowlund's our zoo!  The kids had a ton of fun looking at all the animals!  They especially liked riding the Carousel and train, feeding the goats and other animals in the petting zoo, and feeding ducks.  

Here's Kadence riding in the stroller, she looks like maybe something doesn't smell real good:)

AJ was kind of in his own little world, he was pretty quiet!

And...here is what happens when you have two tuckered out little munchkins!  They must have had a good time at the zoo!!

It is so fun to have family come to visit us here!  We had such a good time and I know that the kids really enjoyed having their cousins here!

Happy September!

Ryan and the kids and I spent a relaxing Labor Day weekend at home together.  With Ryan just 2 weeks into his clinical and the whole family still adjusting, it was some needed quality time.  

I can not believe it is already September!  One day over the weekend we decided to check out Pallisades State Park.  It is about 15 minutes from our house and gorgeous!  Fun to be out of the "city" for a little bit.  Natalie and Olivia came with us, and the kids all had a blast!

This is just one of the scenery shots, pretty!Little family photo in the middle of the water on the rocks! 
Kadence loved the park, and LOVED exploring:)
The little ones posing on a bench.
They all had their feet in the water...cute!
Another cute pic of the gang...I think Ryan actually thought by moving over that much he would be out of the photo...haha!

Summer is coming to an end...

As we are enjoying the last few days of August, it is becoming more and more real that summer's end is near.

The days are still pretty warm and sunny, but the nights are definitely cooling off quickly.  

All the older kids are back in school already or will be shortly.

The parks are more vacant each day.

The air is starting to smell like Fall.

Football season is not too far off (can you sense my excitement as our household has been full of all kinds of speculation and excitement).

My birthday is near and I will be another year older.

My skin is getting lighter and lighter everyday.  

Even though I am sad to think about summer ending, it is bittersweet as fall is perhaps my favorite season.  I look forward to a couple more months outside with the kids finding new parks and creating new adventures of our own.  

We have been blessed with an extremely fun, busy, and stressful summer.  We were able to spend a good amount of time with our families and friends as well.  

I hope you all enjoy these last few days of summer as I know we will!

Camping Summer 2009

I am posting these pictures a little late as we have had a busy week thus far.  The kids and I are adjusting to our new schedule with Ryan being gone quite a bit.  The kids sure miss Daddy and ask for him every morning, but we have been finding things to keep ourselves busy.  

We took the kids and went camping with our friends the O'Connors last saturday night.  We went to a state park about 15 minutes from our house-just in case the trip didn't go so well.  The kids did really well and had a lot of fun just being outside and spending time with our family and the O'Connors.  

Some highlights for the kids were: sticks, the fire, mud, the walk to the park, mud, just being outside, and did I mention mud?  

Luckily, Katie thought to bring her potty and the older kids used that!  It was quite funny to see Landon sitting on the potty in the middle of the woods...for his sake I didn't post that picture, although it was quite funny:) 

The 4 of us slept snug as a bug in our tent together.  Kadence slept in her pack-n-play and of course slept like a champ.  Landon and I...well, let's just say he woke up A LOT and woke me up!  Ryan slept pretty good, but woke up a lot, too.  It was pretty chilly getting down to the upper 50's, we even had to put poor Emma under the covers!  

It was a very fun experience and we will definitely do some more camping next summer!  Our family just loves being outside so much!  

Our family picture (minus Emma) outside of our tent, this is what we all look like with little sleep (aside from Kadence-who slept well like usual).
Kadence and Lily playing.  Kadence is 4 months older than Lily.
Landon and Hayley.  Hayley is 7 months older than Landon.
These two had a riot playing together!  Landon has been asking for Hayley ever since we got back!