It's a Blogging World

It seems like more & more people are joining the blogging world. I love blogging, I just wish I could become better at thinking of creative things to talk about. Not just...here's what we did last weekend, here's some pictures of the kids...blah blah. :) I know that was the point of starting a blog, just to be able to post pictures of the kids and what they have been up to so family/friends can see...and it seems like some people like to check it out. But someday it would be fun to think of interesting stories to tell and topics to write about. It would even be fun to get more creative with the design of the blog and add side bars/advertisements to it. (People actually make money from the advertisement part!) But I guess taking care of 2 kids and having a full time job kind of takes up a lot of time. So, it's just another thing to keep thinking about. Stay tuned, maybe someday this blog will just get more interesting! :)

On that note. Back to updates on the kiddos! Some changes will be coming for Ethan. As of August 31st he is going to be going to a new "school". It's a daycare center here in Mankato that takes pre-schoolers full time. He went and visited it with me yesterday, he was kind of shy when the teachers talked to him and tried to get him to join in on the kids games. But when we left he said he thought it would be a fun place to go. I think it will be great for him to have more structure in his day and more kids to play with that are his age. So lets hope this change is good. I can't believe how grown up he is...first pre-school...and soon kindegarten. *sigh*

He is looking at his brother with complete adoration...I will show this to him some day when all he wants to do is get away from that cute little brother.

Sleeping babies are so sweet (it was only coincidence that his pacifier and pj's coordinate!)

And then that sweet little baby wakes up and gets into everything...and laughs when you tell him no.

Ethan thought making Carson's hair like this was hilarious, he couldn't stop giggling. He had a bunch of sunscreen on so his hair was nice & greasy!

The boys & I are heading down to Fairmont this weekend. Hoping to spend some time out at the Martin County Fair!

Jarred is going to the pre-season Vikings game Friday night. GO BRETT FAVRE!

Lazy Dayz

I guess I have kind of taken a little break from the blog!

Let's see...Jarred and I got away for a long weekend & went to Country Jam with his family. It was a lot of fun. Great music & good food & drinks. Meanwhile my mom was back home taking care of the kids while she had the stomach flu. Yikes! Good thing she had Keisha to help. Ethan got to go fishing with Grandpa Brian & he caught LOTS of fish! He still talks about it.

Carson had his 9 month doctor appointment today. Last week he had another go around with an ear infection, so today the doctor checked his ears out and said they look great! I hope they stay that way for awhile. He weighs 21.7 pounds and is 29 inches long. Growing like a weed! He is still keeping busy crawling around and getting into everything. Most of you have seen them, but he had some really cute 9 month pictures taken. So I am going to post my favorite picture, because I can't get enough of it!



August is going to fly by, and soon Ethan will be starting pre-school, sunday school & soccer! Sorry to all of you who love summer...but I am really looking forward to fall. :)

Just kids

It was only towards the end of June that Carson started crawling. Now he is pulling himself up on his own! His favorite thing to do is look out the picture window and bang on the window with his hand. He also pulls himself up in his crib and chews on it in the exact same spot that Ethan did! He is getting into everything...opening cupboards, drawers, pulling the cats hair, chewing on books. You name it and he has tried to get into it! :) I almost forgot how busy they are at this age. This picture is kind of dark, but it shows how proud he is after pulling himself up the on the couch.

The weekend of the 10th of July we went over to New Ulm and hung out with the Becker's! Margo & I took the kids to the Sleepy Eye waterpark. Ethan had fun playing with Owen in the yard after we got back to the house.

Carson was happy to play with some different toys!

Just a little backyard fun at our house.



Below is Ethan playing in his...umm...rather small pool. Guess I didn't really read the dimensions when I bought it, it's more for a smaller kid. But he still likes it, so I guess that is all that matters!

Jarred and I are off to Country Jam this weekend, we leave Thursday and come back Sunday! It should be a fun time. The kids are staying with Grandpa Preston then Grandpa & Grandma Poppe. They should have fun. I know I am looking forward to sleeping in! :)

Summer Fun

Is it really July already? Summer is zipping by.

We went down to Fairmont for the 4th of July. My cousins Amanda and Cory came to visit us for the weekend, so it was nice to see them. We went and visited great grandma & grandpa and hung out around the house and campground. Unfortunately Carson was a bit on the fussy side, he wasn't feeling well and had a runny nose and low grade fever. I blame everything on teething right now, but who knows! So on the night of the 4th of July we hung out at the campground, and watched an OK fireworks show. Keisha also got here on the 4th and Ethan was happy to see her! This whole week we have not had daycare, so I took the day off on Monday. Keisha came back with us and we all headed to the Waseca waterpark with Sara & Aubrey. We thought we might be in trouble because the babies both cried almost all the way over there. Carson was cranky most of the time, but Aubrey seemed to love the water! I wish I could have a day off every week to do fun stuff like that with the kids. Maybe someday. ( I think I have said that before?)

Waiting for the fireworks to start.

Looking super cute in her little swimsuit! (I love girl clothes!!)

Making sure they don't scrape their knees!

Carson was not happy about picture time.

Keisha has been a big help taking care of the kids! She even cleaned the house for me today. I need to have a 13 year old around more often. :)

Does anyone else think it's HOT outside?

Okay, so we can't win. I wanted it to get warm, and now it's unbearably hot outside. I don't even want to be out there. I liked it better when I had to wear a sweatshirt everyday!

Enough complaning about the weather...and back to some pictures of the kids.

Ethan and Carson get to take baths together once in awhile. They both seem to think it's the greatest thing. Ethan likes having Carson in there, and Carson just looks at Ethan and smiles and laughs at whatever he does. To bad it won't always be that way. :)

The above picture was on Father's Day. They both have my favorite outfits on, I love plaid shorts. For Father's Day Jarred and his dad went golfing and my parents came up and spent the afternoon with us.

For the last few days Carson has been really fussy from teething. He now has 2 teeth on the bottom 1 on the top that is all the way through, and another pushing through on the top. Nothing seems to make him feel better. So if anyone has any tips, please let me know. :)

Chicago-Day 3

Saturday, June 13th was another rainy day. But it didn't really matter, because Margo and I spent the day "relaxing" in our hotel room. :) The fun night before took a toll on the two mommies that don't get out much! haha. So the big concert started at 4 p.m. at Soldier Field. The bands set to perform were: Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, Sugarland and Kenny Chesney. We were lucky enough to get to go backstage with Margo's sister Anne. While we were waiting for her, we saw Montgomery Gentry drive right past us on their golf carts. Anne gave us our VIP passes and took us down to the front (The Sandbar) where we would get to watch the concert. It was pretty cool to be so close and then turn around and look back and see how many people there were in that stadium, there were probably about 60,000 people at the concert. We didn't actually get to see Lady Antebellum, just heard them from the outside. So the first performance we watched was Miranda Lambert.

Below is just a picture of the stage from higher up.

Montgomery Gentry performed next, we were able to go wherever we wanted in the stadium so we decided to get something to eat and sit in the seats to listen to them. We went back down to the "Sandbar" for Sugarland. They put on a great show!!

Now it was time for Kenny!!!!!! He made his entrance on a swing, he was right above us before he landed on the stage.

He is right in front of us in the below picture.

Why doesn't anyone believe me when I say he is pointing at me?

Kenny and his band.

One last picture of us to end the night.

Luckily we left the concert a little early to catch a cab back to our hotel, because it was still hard to find a cab. Unfortunately we had to be up on Sunday morning at 4 a.m. to catch our 6:30 a.m. flight. It has taken me until about today to recover from being tired. But it was all worth it, it was a very fun trip. Thanks to Margo & Anne for inviting me!

Chicago-Day 2

Friday, June 12th turned out to be a very nice day. The sun was shining! So we decided to do the double decker bus tour of the city. We found out pretty quickly that sitting on the top while the bus was moving was very CHILLY, although I still managed to get a little bit sunburned.

The tour started out by going past Soldier Field, and a couple of the museums. We got a really good view of the Chicago Skyline.

This tour goes on all day, so we were able to get on and off the bus wherever we wanted to. The first place we got off was Navy Pier.

There was lots of "tourist" shopping places here, so our first goal was to find sweatshirts because we were freezing cold from being on top of the bus! And I also bought a few little things for the kids. We had lunch here and also rode on the big ferris wheel. The view was amazing.

We got back on the bus to go around the downtown area where we saw some really neat bulidings and landmarks like the Sears Tower. Our next stop was Millenium Park. The big attraction here is the silver "Bean". We took a picture of our reflection.

We finished up the bus tour and headed back to our hotel to get ready for our fun night out at the bars!

Margo is getting all pumped up for the evening in the above pic :)

We started out at the Hard Rock Cafe where there was a "pre-party" for Kenny so there were a couple country bands playing. We had dinner and drinks and listened to music. It was a fun start to the night. We then headed out to a bar called the Hunt Club and ended the night at an Irish Pub. Both were a fun time. It ended up being a late night...and I will leave it at that! :)