Our Little Cook

Two years ago, and again right before Emma was born, Brian was hospitalized with a small bowel obstruction.  Ever since the 2nd time, he has had a lot of pain in his stomach almost every day, but not enough to feel as though he needed to go to the ER again.  He has seen a GI doctor and had a couple CT scans, an MRI and several other tests, including one for celiac and they have all come back negative...which is good news, but frustrating when the pain is still there with no known cause.  He decided to try cutting gluten out of his diet just to see what happened...even though the celiac test was neg., and ever since he has had virtually no pain.  This has meant cutting a lot out of his diet, obviously, including pizza (with the crust, anyway)...until Isaac came along and made Daddy a gluten-free pizza last Friday night!  It was "very tasty" as Isaac says.  =)

 Making the crust...he had to be remind many times to stir gently.

Such concentration 

 This was his favorite part

 And a little more cheese

 Our little perfectionist...he's slightly OCD...pretty sure he doesn't get that from me.  ;-)

 A few more pepperonis 

 And done!  Looks good!

 So proud!

 And excited!

 Let's eat!

 Yum!

Finger-lickin' good!  Or hand-lickin'...whichever you prefer.   =)

Completed "park"

Toward the end of September, Mom and Dad came down and Dad helped Brian surround Isaac's "park" with mulch.  It was one of those projects where you don't think it will take all that long, and ends up consuming an entire day.  We got home from Menards with all of the supplies at about 10am and it was complete by 8pm...with a lunch break in there and a couple others just to rest...it was unseasonably warm that day.  We love how it turned out and Isaac and his daycare friends LOVE playing on it.

A Day at the Orchard

The weather couldn't have been more perfect this past Sunday as we put on our sweaters and headed south on 169 after church to spend a few hours at Minnesota Harvest picking apples.  We started with a lunch of apple cider brats and then headed out in a tractor pulled wagon to pick...after, of course, I tried (unsuccessfully) to get a good picture of Isaac and Emma together...both looking at the camera and smiling.  Maybe someday they will both cooperate.  =)  Isaac was so excited to pick the apples and was so focused and busy the entire time we were out there.  Emma loved it, too!  I'll let the (many) pictures tell the rest of the story of the afternoon...

 Next post...coming soon...recap from the summer.  =)

"I have a park in my backyard!"

Isaac is SO excited to now have a "park" in his backyard!  They came yesterday morning to install it and were completely done in just over 2 hours!  We ended up purchasing one through Crown of Minnesota, which I HIGHLY recommend.  They were a great company to work with, build quality swingsets and the install was free due to a State Fair special.  Can't beat that!  Sadly, we had to dig up our garden since it was right in the middle of the best spot in our yard to put the swingset...so if you'd like some green tomatoes, we have plenty to share!  Mom came to help watch the daycare kids (thanks again, Mom!) while the men were here. We spent the morning on the deck watching...Isaac was even too excited to change out of his pajamas first.  =)                                  Quite an entertaining process...

Next weekend's project...enclosing the area with some sort of wood chips, mulch or something of the sort.  THANKS Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Lila for our park in the backyard!!!  Love you!

100 days old

These pics were taken on Emma's 100th day of life.  As I post this now on June 10th and look at her beautiful, perfect features (yes, I realize I may be a bit biased as her mommy)  =)  I am amazed at the fact that one year ago today we did not even know we were having another baby.  It was June 14th that we discovered Isaac was going to be a big brother.  Two weeks later, I had an ultrasound that showed a tiny tadpole-like figure with the faintest heartbeat that even the ultrasound tech was surprised to see so early on.  Makes me tear up whenever I think about how truly amazing, wonderful and beautiful the creation of life really is.  To look at an ultrasound of a tiny blob, and not even a year later to look at this face, is an amazing miracle.  One that in my mind, no matter what one's circumstance in life may be to make them think otherwise, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is very, very real and He is worthy to be praised!!!