Our Girls

Tehya:
-turned 5 on November 28th
-talks constantly... and I do mean constantly!
-is very into the "preteen" music like Hannah Montana, The Jonas Brothers and the Naked Brothers Band
-is very creative and artistic. She loves to draw and color, and painting is even better. She loves craft projects and working with beads and ribbons and other things of that nature.
-likes Polly Pockets, Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Ponies, Barbies and anything Disney Princess.
-is a fantastic big sister. She grumbles every once and awhile about Ada getting drool on a toy, but otherwise is usually the first to offer to share or show her little sister something.
-is in her second year of dance lessons. She gets to see what her recital costumes will look like this year next week and we are very excited about that!
-is turning into quite the young lady. She is very stubborn and has a bit of a temper when she doesn't get her way, but is also very compassionate and aware of other peoples feelings around her. She wants to learn to read very badly, so we are spending lots of time with books and practicing our letters.

Ada:
-turned 1 on August 21st
-is growing her vocabulary by the day. Words she currently uses are: mommy, daddy, kitty, puppy, buh-bye, hi, more, thank you (although she says it tant-too), and yeah
-is very affectionate. She loves to give kisses and does running tackling hugs from time to time that make us all giggle.
-has become very good friends with our cat Ellie. They play tag most days. Ellie usually tires of the game before Ada does.
-has the reach of a long armed ape. It doesnt matter how far in from a table or countertop edge you put something....she somehow seems to get it.
-is a foodie. She loves to eat and will chow down on anything you hand her. She also likes to be in the kitchen and recently has started "helping" me unload the dishwasher.
-adores her big sister. Anything Tehya does grabs Ada's attention right away and usually results in a very amusing imitation.

Ada Learning to Eat...Sort of

Ada has become intrigued with silverware lately...which makes some meal times quite the show! Yesterday at our lunch of mac and cheese she succeeded in eating most of it off of her spoon all by herself! Tehya was quite the cheerleader saying "Good job Ada!" after every successful scoop!

Look at Me Mom!

Uncle Jake followed Tehya's wish list for her birthday and got her a new dress coat. It is gorgeous and she absolutely loves it!
This is Tehya blowing Uncle Jake a kiss as a thank you....

And then following it up with the double thumbs up approval!

Happy Birthday Tehya!

Tehya is now 5 years old!

I can hardly believe that she is this old and grown up acting already, but she is and she is loving every minute of it!

Ada got her big sister a MP3 player for her birthday present. Tehya thought that was a really cool gift.This is Tehya's first reaction to her present from Mom and Dad....

A big girl bike!

We were thankful for nice weather that day as we spent it outside with Tehya zooming around on her new wheels!

Thanksgiving at Grandma Sue's

We celebrated Thanksgiving day at my mom's house this year. We also celebrated Tehya's birthday this day as the next day she was turning 5!!Tehya and her new best friend Mona (Jake's girlfriend) checking out the ads
Four generation photo


The turkey must have kicked in for Daddy!
Ada enjoying a cookie for desert.

This is also the very first day she had a pony tail in her hair!


Tehya quite excited about her new makeup kit from GG and Papa Charlie

A New Play Room for the Girls

Recently Tehya decided that she wanted to move back upstairs and share a bedroom with Ada. We moved the bunkbeds upstairs and Ada is now in a big girl bed! The first project was to turn Tehya's bedroom downstairs into a playroom for the girls. Above is the before picture with Grandma Sue helping me get a game plan for the day of hard work ahead of us!

This picture is the after look. A wallpaper border was added, some fun girly paintings were hung and all the toys were sorted organized and put away. We turned the closet into dress up central and now the girls have a closet full of fun dresses and coats and such to play with. I have a couple of long mirrors that I need to hang on the one wall and then the room will be complete!

Caught In the Act

One of Ada's new talents is pushing the buttons on our dishwasher. She has figured out how to turn on the steam dry option, as well as turning the knob to start up the load. It is quite amusing when she turns the dishwasher on because we get these two looks shown above, which I cant believe I caught on film finally. One is the "What are you talking about mom, I didn't do it, really" look and the other is the "Ok you know I did it but I am really sorry please dont make me cry" look. I think both are adorable of course!

Trick or Treating

Tehya picked out her and Ada's costumes for this year because she wanted them to match - so we had a house full of lady bugs!

Mom dressed up for trick or treating as well - no reason just the kiddos get to have fun!

Carving Pumpkins

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Tehya's Two Cents

After hearing a discussion about Mommy looking for a new job Tehya had a very exciting idea that she shared with us....she thought that Mom could work at Arby's - then we could always have french fries! When I said I wasnt sure about that since I would probably eat too many of them she said, "well maybe then you could cook food at the Chinese store next to dance class!"
Oh if only it were that simple....

Family Photos

We had family photos taken a few weeks ago, and they turned out great! My friend Nicky Clark (Niks Pics) met us at Como Park for an hour and these are some of the shots she got for us. She does a fantastic job!

Abundance of Opportunity...

We have some exciting news at our house...albeit a little scary at the same time.
I was laid off on Monday, meaning I now have the opportunity to find another place of employment that hopefully wont require me to commute for multiple hours a day!
Due to financial reasons several employees were let go over the past few months, and apparently Monday it was my turn to go. After almost 8 years of working there I am obviously saddened and surprised by this change of events, but am also excited for the changes it may bring for our family. Dan is quite excited too as he is hoping I will now have some time at home while doing my job search to get all those "some day" projects taken care of!
If anyone knows of an opportunity that may fit my qualifications I would be more than interested to hear about it - otherwise now is the time to schedule those get togethers that I hardly had time for before! :)

Ada's new Bear

Beth made a knitted bear and gave it to Ada - Ada adores it!
When Dan and I got home from Applefest and gave the bear to Ada she squealed in delight and walked around the house with it for hours!
Hey Beth, this is Ada's Thank you face!

Applefest 2008

We had another great Applefest celebration up in Bayfield. Dan and I left town early and had almost 2 full days at the cabin to relax before everyone arrived and the partying began! We had 8 people this year, which was a blast!
Dylan and Alicia, Beth and John, Jake and Mona and Dan and I had a great weekend. Lots of great food, plenty of cocktails, and a ferry ride over to Madeline Island where we rented mopeds and had our own "bike gang" helped to make a memorable time.
This is what happens when Dan has control of the camera - we get pictures of me growling at him! :)

Girls Fun Adventure Trip

In celebration of my moms 50th Birthday, and as an excuse to get a bunch of gals together there were 8 of us that took a Mystery Bus Tour weekend trip through a company named Girls Fun Adventures.

With no idea where we were going, the 8 of us boarded the bus in our matching Princess gear (our groups theme) and headed out for a weekend of lots of laughs.

Above is my cousin Oni and I modeling Vikings helmets at the carrousel in Storybook, Iowa. Personally I think we look pretty hot.

Here is the birthday girl on her white horse

And all 8 of us in front of the only remaining swing bridge in the state of Iowa.

Group pose at the worlds largest pitchfork...now come on - where else are you going to find this sort of fun?!?!

We had a great time laughing until we cried a few times...and spit marshmallows out of our mouths a few others. We shopped, explored, played games, had a few cocktails and so much more...all in all a great trip!

Family Photos

It's that time of year again - Family Pictures!

Ada was not very enthused about getting ready...

Tehya was hamming it up as usual....
Oh boy it's going to be an interesting day!

We should be getting our session pictures back soon...

I am just hoping we got a couple of good ones to share!