updating the blog

This photo says "Summer." I'm laying on the grass with the girls, relaxing under the Birch tree.

The blog posts have been sparse since my little babe became a toddler. Keeping up with the two of them is a race. They are into everything! And we have had an incredibly eventful spring and early summer. I just uploaded all our photos last week, but each time I try to post, I don't have my cookies set right. The computer whiz looked at it and its all set right....go figure. So some day soon I will get the mini-movie of vacation on the blog.

Springtime- First we went to Fort Drum, NY to visit Pam and the kids for Easter. Alizah and I went on the plane (which was a really good idea with a teething 1 year old) and Rayna went on a big big road trip with my dad. She even saw Niagra Falls! (it took her 2 months to tell me about that part of the trip. Her other favorite parts were indoor play centers and princess pull-ups from Aunt Irene. She still tries to convince me to get her pull-ups and boring mama....I tell her we can't cut down trees when we have perfectly good cloth diapers to use (in case of accidents at night, which are still frequent)).

When we got back we started getting the garden prepped and made plans for some backyard construction. I dug a 8x30 foot patch of lawn out to expand the garden (I ran out of room for green beans and so some squash would be nice too). Levi built a pergola (with his dad's help) and a swing set (all his genius). And now he's busy creatively constructing a 200 + gallon rain water collection system for our garden with a garden locker shed below it.

Rayna was in VBS the first part of June. She loves the songs, that girl has a great memory! While we are on vacation she spontaneously started singing and had to remind me of the words to sing along. She also learned to play freeze tag, at the Felling picnic in St Paul last weekend she had us play along "and then someone can hug you to unfreeze you."

The week after VBS we went crazy between 2 different parent-child swim lesson times. Levi went with Alizah before dinner and I went with Rayna after. At the end of the week we went to Middleton for a B-day luau. The hotel we stayed at had a great indoor wade/splash pool- Hilton Garden Inn Middleton in case you want to go. This really helped in getting the girls used to putting their faces in the water (especially Miss Rayna).

The next Thursday we left for a week of Felling vacation near Iron River. (movie slideshow hopefully to be added soon). We had a week of wind. cool and some rain. So, very little swimming. But lots of canoing and fishing. And we got very creative with our indoor games with the kids.

I'm excited that Rayna and Alizah will be able to spend so much time with their aunt's this summer. Pam, Conall and Noelle have been visiting all week and next too. And then Laura will be visiting over my birthday for a week.

My dad took us all (Pam, Noelle, Conall, Levi, Me, Rayna and Alizah) in the boat fishing at Otter Lake yesterday! Its surprisingly cold and windy again like when we were on vacation. We were all bundled up, and we did catch a few bluegills and we saw many Great Blue Heron/GBH. Levi and I plan to tent for the first time with the girls this Friday with Pam and the kids at Coon Fork. Next Sunday we are going to Pulaski to polka!

Family Vacation

We just got back from our Felling family vacation. I am still unwinding from too much coffee at the Delta Diner and flash unpacking. Just wanted to make a quick post before heading to bed.

Highlights:
Playing at the beach on our 1 sunny day, and getting bucked off the wild horse (noodle)- Rayna went all the way under without panicking! She was so proud of herself.
Short sailboat ride with Captain Steve out of Ashland harbor.
Oulu glass.
Lots of time for imaginative play; tying on the horse tails and prancing! The dog need obedience training, but wow can she do some cool tricks!
Strawberry picking in the drizzle.
Alizah practicing lots of words! Truck, help, up, down, etc (she has a big list of words now)
Popcorn over the campfire.
Rayna losing her fish pole in the water; getting it back with our canoe paddle and umbrella.
Canoeing/Fishing on the Brule with Grandpa Vern (Levi, Zach and Joe fished a brown drake hatch; no hatch the night I was out but wow is it beautiful and surprising what you can see in the dark).
Spending time with a family full of good cooks!

I'm a toddler!

Last night Levi turned to me and said, I think we can officially say that today is the day Alizah started walking. She has been taking steps for weeks now, but yesterday her attention really focused on steady steps across the room, and again, and again. She goes about 8 before she stops and there is no changing direction (that's the next step to work on). She is very good at climbing and her favorite is pulling herself to the bathroom sink. Here you see her begin to fish for the footing on the floor. After a week off and another week of practice, she finally mastered it.

January afternoon lighting through our big window is amazing. And it is so much fun to play in the sheer curtains!

Alizah has 7 teeth and she's about to get a molar along with about 4 more teeth, any day now. (And I am looking forward to the longer hours of sleeping).

January 2009

Lots happened in January. Alizah was baptized Jan 3 during Epiphany service. I got to participate in my friend's home birth watching her boys and doing a little bit of acupressure. There is nothing like hearing that first cry and seeing the boy's faces light right up! It was a baby sister.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYNA! (The girls are laughing at Uncle Zach-- he does look really funny!) Just before Rayna turned 3, she gave up her pac. We had many struggles about it and then 1 day I decided to look for youtube videos showing kids saying bye bye to their pacifiers. It was awesome! We watched some of the videos several times, her favorite was one of the boy throwing his pac in the pool (she liked the music that went along with it). Watching the videos was great because it opened conversation about how she was feeling about it. That night she decided it would be okay to give the pac to the pac fairy so she could give it to a baby who didn't have all its teeth like Alizah. So we took her to store the next day to exchange the pac for a cuddly cat and the clerk gave the pac to the pac fairy. Yeah! No fights or sadness about it!

Rayna went to the dentist for the first time. She was a little scared but we did some EFT and she sat up in the chair and let the hygentist show her the tools and tickle her teeth. Laying back in the chair was just for the photo though. And she let the dentist check her teeth at the end too.

We had so many cold cold subzero days so we had to get creative. Dress up days, painting, puzzles, forts, bouncing on the bed, towers, farm, books, song, play dough, cooking, baths.................!!!!!

This month we are all in swim lessons. Rayna has a teacher and she loves it! She likes "chop chop timber" and "3 green and speckled frogs." Tomorrow is her last day, she is still deciding if she is going to put her head all the way under. Alizah loves the water. Our instructor is giving me lots of fun ideas of how to participate in the water with Alizah. We are going to try out our skills in Wisconsin Dells on Friday (Levi has a big conference and we get to come play with him after his big presentation).

I see the photos of Alizah didn't get posted, so my next blog will have to be all about Alizah.

Happy New Year

Okay, so I finally got Levi to pause and assist me with my November blog problem. So, you can find that under "answers to standard questions" around the Halloween photos. The problem was, I wrote what I wanted to say while visiting my dad, in the country (without web service). And my program of choice is Microsoft Word, which does not nicely cut and paste into the blog. Levi says that if I am going to write outside the blog, I need to use Notepad. Now I know.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We didn't send out any letters yet, I'm waiting until the new year (which today is! Happy 2009) and looking at the blog I realize our 2007 favorite photos slide show only has Rayna. This is a trend, my dad says I never gave him any photos of Alizah after she was born, his fridge is missing 1 grandchild. (I have taken quite a few photos though, I'm trying to be conscious of the fact that 2nd children often don't have pictures of themselves alone or very many in general. 1st baby excitement wears off and we're focused on so many other things). So I have been preparing for all this to take place- photos for dad, new slideshow favorites 2008, letter for our friends and family, but I'm not in a rush.

Maybe I have already said this, but in the last couple months I've been really working on slowing down. And it feels really good, but also sometimes a little strange to not have such an overwhelming "to do" list. Sometimes I find myself standing at the kitchen sink, hands in the soapy water, without a thought in my mind while I scrub a cup. For me this is unusual, so I wouldn't want to spoil a perfectly relaxed mind with nothing, so I start thinking, "am I supposed to be doing something?" (usually on the order of saving the world, so that would be a really big task and I would need a really big list to organize and accomplish all that.

So letters, don't expect them in December, maybe by the end of January. anyway, I decided it is fun to get mail and send mail and really I wish I received more letters throughout the year.

We have been really enjoying a little extra time with Pam, Conall and Noelle (and Beauty). Don't you love their wrinkly noses and full excitement expressions in this photo!?! I think Levi was egging them on with some funny dancing. Pam surprised us for Thanksgiving (with pink eye too. did I mention that breastmilk is a fantastic cure!) and they have been back for this week while Noelle has holiday vacation. We are going to try to sled this afternoon. They are staying through Saturday, which is the day we will baptize Alizah. It will be the Epiphany service (the day that we happened to decide on for Rayna because everyone was home, so we wanted to include Alizah's baptism as part of our Christmas stories as well).

I think I mentioned Alizah's teeth in my last post. This is a great picture of them. Christmas Eve she popped another top front one. The other might come today? I hope she'll start sleeping better once it comes through. But then I suppose the next 2 will start and then it will be the I-teeth and then the molars.....maybe next year I will start getting better sleep and my new wrinkles will fade a little.

Bubble Bath Recipe

Rayna wants "purple bubble bath" for christmas. I went shopping; the ingredients scared me! So I went online and found a recipe. I am going to try it this weekend.

Here is the recipe in case all your kids want for christmas is purple bubbles:
Bubble Bath:
1 qt (4 c) distilled water
1 bar (4 oz) castille soap, grated or flaked
3-4 oz liquid glycerin
Mix all together and store in airtight container. Pour in running water.

another recipe uses
1 qt (4 c) distilled water
1 bar (4 oz) castille soap, grated or flaked
2 oz coconut oil
2 oz liquid glycerin

add 3 drops essential oil (and food coloring).

Experimenting with Food Coloring is going to be fun! I wonder if it will rince right off or her hair will come out purple?

Pumpkin Patch Photos