From Song of Solomon to Shopping Carts

On Saturday Jeremy and I went to the Mark Driscoll "Song of Solomon" conference at St. Paul's Rivercentre. If you have never heard of Mark Driscoll, he is a pastor in Seattle and is an excellent speaker. Some friends told us about him a couple months ago and we had been listening to his messages online, so when we heard he was coming to St. Paul we thought it would be fun to see him in person. Although it wasn't a lot of new material to us, we still enjoyed it and were challenged. Every married couple (or anyone seeking God's will for their future marriage) should watch his "Peasant Princess" series online: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/sermons. He is bold, very Biblical, super funny, and just a really neat guy.

After the conference Jeremy surprised me by taking me to Manny's (a famous steakhouse downtown Minneapolis) where we got the biggest dessert we'd ever seen.

The picture doesn't do it justice. It was basically a huge brownie covered in ice cream, surrounded by strawberries. Then the waiter poured chocolate and butterscotch over it, then stuck a huge steakknife in it. We ate maybe half of it, then brought the rest to Jessie to devour (with some help from the girls.)

Here are a few random pictures of the girls last week. The first ones are of them and their first ever "tattoos." They thought they were the greatest thing.

The other night I saw one of the biggest smiles on Bri's face. It all started when I made a grocery trip to Aldi and realized after I checked out that I forgot to bring my bags from home. Although you can buy them for only like 3 cents, I didn't realize I didn't have mine until after I checked out, and I didn't want to get back in line again. So I just piled the groceries into the van, not a big deal. When I got home, Bri was waiting to help me put things away. I decided to take her little shopping cart out to the garage and fill it with the groceries, then let her push the cart over to the fridge to put things away. I have never seen a bigger smile on her face, she thought it was the greatest thing ever.
Kids are easily amused! Then again, so am I.

Speaking of the shopping cart, the girls have been obsessed with it lately. We even have to set the timer so they can take turns with it. It's funny how they go in stages with different toys. Something they haven't played with in months is suddenly the toy of choice.
Clothed or naked, boots or no boots, it's all good.

Our weekend

This past weekend was my annual scrapbook retreat in North Branch, MN, and I had the best time, just like last year. From 1:00 pm on Friday to 3:00 pm on Sunday all we did was scrapbook, eat, scrapbook, eat, sleep a little, eat, and scrapbook some more. It was great! I stayed up until 4:00am the first night and about 2:00am the second night, so I am a little tired today, but not too bad. And Jeremy survived the weekend, too, watching the girls. When I got home the house was all clean, which is always wonderful. He took them to Adventure Park one day, and even got them all dressed up for church. Thank you, honey, for a wonderful weekend! I love my husband so much that I am putting this hilarious picture on of his family. (Jer is the cute one on the right) :)

Farm Humor

I need to laugh more. When I get stressed out, I start to realize I haven't laughed much lately. When you have a husband as funny as I do, a good laugh isn't hard to come by. But I need to do it more. Maybe these will help (or not!):

Ok, these were bad, I know.

A new week

Ok, the game is over, it's time to move on.

Sometimes my mom asks me what the girls are into lately. Well, I'll tell you -- holidays and birthdays. What's the next holiday coming up, whose birthday is it today or any day, what cake they'll have for their next birthday (Emily has already planned her 5-year birthday cake but still isn't sure about her 4-year one.) They still talk about Santa quite a bit (often their prayers want to thank Jesus for Santa) so Christmas is still strong in their minds, but they have also moved on to Valentine's Day. Emily's Valentine's day shirt from last year doesn't fit her any more so she was very adamant about getting a new one. There's nothing like spending good money on a shirt you can wear one time. So instead I went for a brown hooded sweatshirt with hearts on it; I figured that would be a little more versatile. Bri doesn't care about all these things yet, except that she wants to do everything that Emily does. So therefore she cares.

On a positive note (amidst the sad Cowboys game today) is that next weekend I will be at my annual scrapbook retreat. Jeremy did wonderful with the girls last year and this year should be even easier for him. Not to say it'll be easy (you might start praying for extra patience for him), but he'll do great. He's way better than I am at putting them to bed, especially Bri. If I put her to bed she usually cries about 15 minutes. If Jeremy puts her to bed, you don't hear a peep out of her.

Well, I better use my "free time" to start getting organized for my upcoming retreat. Can't wait!

The Game

Sorry for the terribly ugly background (don't you just love the little things that say "Football -- Hard Work, Sacrifice, Dedication", ha ha.) But there is a very important game in our household starting at noon on Sunday -- Cowboys vs. Vikings. Sorry to all my Minnesota friends who are Vikings fans. I'm sorry, we don't share your loyalty. If you need to take me off your blog list than so be it. :) Just kidding, Em.

I sure hope that the game on Sunday is a happy ending to a not-so-fun week. Among other issues our hot water heater went out this week, plus Emily has been sick, poor thing. Here's my favorite quote from her this week. The day the plumbers were installing the new hot water heater she had thrown up a couple times in the toilet (just drainage, nothing horrible.) However, since the water was turned off, well, you get the idea. After the plumbers left, she very politely asked, "Mommy, may I please go flush my puke now?" Aww, isn't that precious.

Then there's Bri; many of you have been asking how the potty training is going. I guess the one word to describe it is inconsistent. She goes in the potty a lot, but she also goes in her pants a lot. I wasn't sure if she was ready but I figured it was worth a try. We'll see what the next few weeks bring. She certainly wants to wear underwear but I'm getting a little tired of changing wet pants five times a day. Not to mention the extra laundry. Is it worth it? Who knows.

Well, here's to all the Cowboys and Vikings fans on Sunday. We will be here in the basement in the exact same positions as last weekend, wearing the exact same outfits. (If you're not sure what I'm talking about, see last post.) And luckily the game is during naptime, so hopefully we can recreate the sleeping children as well.

Couple's Skate

I mentioned before that the girls both got roller skates for Christmas (the adjustable kind that you just put on over your shoes). They have really been enjoying them the last few days. They don't really "skate" but each day are getting a little more coordinated with them. As I was watching them today, my memory went back to those elementary school skating parties -- now wasn't that the highlight of each month!

Here is a cute picture of the two of them in their skates, and then a little video.

Ok, now to a more serious topic -- the Dallas Cowboys. My husband has been a die hard fan since he was little, and tonight was no exception. If you are not into football, the Cowboys are in the playoffs, which is basically the road to the Superbowl. I haven't seen him more nervous about a Cowboys game in a long time. As you can see in the picture below, Emily is asleep under the Cowboys blanket. Although she fell asleep right when the game began, Jer would not move her to her bed for fear that their luck would leave. Everything was going well in the game so nothing could be altered. We could not even turn the light off in the basement (poor girl.)

Now we just need to pray for a victory over the Vikings next week!

Crazy

Jeremy's mom just emailed us this picture and said, Guess who? We guessed that maybe it was her or her mom when she was little. It turns out it was her dad, Jeremy's grandpa Ray. We always knew that Jeremy looked like his grandpa, and since Emily looks just like Jeremy I guess it's not a big surprise.

What do you think? Does this picture look exactly like Emily to you?

Happy New Year!

Most of our New Years Eves as a couple have been spent with our friends the Klippenes', the Olsons, and the Kringens. (Unfortunately, the Kringens were unable to attend this year). We are all friends from college and we used to do all sorts of stuff together in our pre-kid days, like trips to Vegas each summer, get-togethers with lots of games, etc. Now we all have kids and the Olsons live in Moorhead, MN, but we still get together as often as we can. This year there were 6 little girls between the ages of 9 months and 4. Not counting baby Megan, the other 5 girls played wonderfully together. We were amazed that we adults could actually eat dinner, and play games of Rook and Scattergories, while the girls played together fairly self-sufficiently. It was like the fog of the past 3 years was starting to lift and our "normal" lives were starting to emerge. We thought this day would never come. Here are the girls playing dress-up.
The funniest thing was when the girls decided they wanted to sleep in the same room. Emily actually fell asleep where you see her below, but the other two weren't as tired and needed a little more time. They eventually all went to bed, though, and the adults were up until about 3:30 am. Unfortunately the kids were up at 6:30 am, so we'll see how 3 hours of sleep will do for us.
It was a great night. And if you have little ones and are wondering if you'll ever have a social life again, there is hope!

A Vegas Christmas

You might be wondering what Christmas in Las Vegas is like. Well, I will sum it up for you in 2 words: Tumbleweed Snowman.

While the midwest was receiving two feet of snow, we were also receiving snow in Las Vegas. Fake snow, that is. Here we are at Christmas Eve service amidst chunks of soap, I mean snow.

But even though it wasn't a "white Christmas", we had a wonderful week with family celebrating Jesus' birth. Here were some of the week's activities.

First of all, the girls did amazing on the airplane. They were seriously nothing short of angels. The first night we made and decorated cookies. The next morning the girls got their hair cut (aka, grandma got to show them off to her hair stylist Elaine). We decided to go with short hair for Emily and she looks absolutely adorable. This isn't the best picture but you get the idea.

Bri got a trim as well.

That night we went to a "Magical Forest" with tons of Christmas lights, a train ride, and more. The girls loved it.

The girls got to spend lots of time with their cousin Michael. They played great together and were sad to leave each other at the end of the week.

On Christmas Eve Emily made sure to set out cookies and milk for Santa by the fireplace, and was thrilled that Santa even left her a note the next morning (along with plenty of presents.)
The girls and I all received "Snuggies" this year (which Jeremy thinks belong in a trailer park.) I think they'll be great!

Emily and Bri each got roller skates, too. Bri is going to be the daredevil, I can already tell.

On Christmas day we had a wonderful dinner of turkey, ham, and all the fixings. Then we let the kids make a birthday cake for Jesus, a new tradition I want to start. They frosted it, put sprinkles on, and then after singing 'Happy Birthday' they went to town on it (as you will see below.)

We did so much more than I could mention here, but just wanted to give you a glimspe of our Vegas Christmas. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas as well!