First Day of School!

Skylar and James were so excited to be getting back to school. Skylar is a bit nervous because she has a boy teacher this year, but Mama is excited because I think he will be able to keep her in line during class. James has a wonderful teacher, so it should be a good year!


Brenne was sad to see them go.

Another apology!

When JT starts to complain about my lack of blogging, I know it is time to get caught up. I have been trying to spend as much time with JT's brothers while they were here (meaning staying up until 2 in the morning and so blogging has gone by the wayside). Anyway, here goes!

Brennen turns two!

As usual, we start the day with a breakfast of doughnuts. Brennen LOVES doughnuts!

Then, everyone went on a boat ride while Mama set up the party.

By the time they got back, everyone was ready to party.

Let the party begin...


First, we opened our party boxes (the most important part) and the whoopee cushions were a big hit!

and then we grew some dinosaurs.



My party kids!

Having a lot of fun.



"I'm two!"

Enjoying my cake!

Opening presents!


Snuggling with my sister on my new sleeping bag.

The bubble machine is a big hit!

A weekend at Lake Okoboji

We went straight from Adventureland to Marilyn and Jim's condo at Lake Okoboji. We spent the day tubing. It was Brennen's first time on the tube and he really had a blast! Can you see the size of his grin?

Adventureland-here we come!

Every year we take a trip to Adventureland before school starts. This year we took Uncle Matt with us because I had to take Charlotta, so we needed someone to watch the baby while we went on the rides.

Matt went with Skylar on all the spinning rides because I get sick on them (I had a hard time getting good pictures because they were going so fast).

But, I think it is obvious Skylar is having a blast!

James still loves the kiddie rides, but Skylar is right on the edge of being bored with them.

Everyone loves the Sky ride!


James did not want to go on the Raging River for some reason, so he patiently waited for us to come.

And here we are...


A little break for some ice cream.

Then off to play some games.

Matt was the master though and ended up with this gigantic dog (and many other big toys) that we had to carry around the park the rest of the day! The kids were so happy with the dog that Skylar offered to carry it around everywhere so that she could have it in her room first.

Charlotta was excellent all day and did a lot of this...

We ended the day on the carousel.


James thought it was a little boring, but overall, we had a excellent day!

Chunk-a-monk has a doctor appointment

Charlotta has done a lot of growing. She is now 11lbs, 10 oz. and 23 in. long. that is in the 75th % for both groups. She also had her shots today. She cried for about 5 seconds and then was fine. What a great little girl she is!

Matt, Katie, and Jackie arrive!

The two cousins (only two weeks apart) finally meet. They were so cute when they played on the baby mat together. They would cross their legs and hold hands (although I am sure they did not know what they were doing!).

We headed up to the lake for the weekend and the kids just loved playing with Matt in the water.

Back to school shopping

School starts in 13 days, so it is time to get our school supplies. We had a nice lunch at Olive garden first.

Then we went to Justice for Girls for Skylar. She loves that store and we found way to many cute outfits for her. For some reason, I had a really hard time saying no to her. She just looked so cute...

Then we went to Gap for James (he refused to pose in the dressing room for me) and Target for our supplies.

Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!

We have been at the lake house and I forgot my cord to download my pictures from the camera to the computer. JT brought it up for me, so at last...

Well, it took me 45 minutes to upload 5 pictures, so for now the pictures will be limited. I will add more when I get home to my fast computer and internet.

James turns 6!

Since Mormor was here and she hardly ever gets to be a part of the birthday celebrations, we decided to celebrate James' birthday before she left. I brought up all of our birthday supplies so that we could celebrate here. As usual, we start out the day with breakfast on the special plate.

We had the party at lunch time. It was a pirate party. Here is my group of pirates! ARGG!!!


Cake and presents!

James got a tube from Mormor to use behind the boat. Here are Skylar and James giving it its test drive!

A Big Surprise!

JT decided what the heck and showed up late last night with this...

Can you believe it? Needless to say, we were all pretty excited!

Mormor arrives!

Mormor (my mother) is here to visit us at the lake house and she is staying until Sunday.

A lazy day lounging takeside!

We were all pretty tired after a nonstop fun weekend with the Goslinga's, so we took it easy and just relaxed in the lake today.