lion eyes

I took this picture!

We love the zoo. Colt especially loves seeing the "Dinosaurs"...aka. The alligator.

We love that we can call up my parents and do an impromptu zoo day.

It's so awesome having family close.

little foot

We <3 our camera. We <3 our chucks. We <3 the zoo.

molly turned one.

I'm blogging!  I almost don't believe it myself.  I'd like to apologize to my avid followers [grandma and mom] for the blogging hiatus.  I promise to do better.

Where to start, where to start...Well since I'm recommitting to blogging I won't try to cover it all at once.  We'll take baby steps here...

I'm starting with Molly. My dear sweet Molly.  I've done everything I said I wouldn't do with the second child.  There were minimal pictures taken of you until we bought a working camera.  I've talked about you on this blog, like, 5 times.  Which my blog is supposed to be a modern day, cheap, virtual scrapbook...so in translation to a real scrapbook this would mean that I have 5 completed scrapbook pages of your life and I started 6 more but ran out of those cute stickers.  Let's just say your life has been really great.  That's all you need to know.

She never gets held.

We had a TuTu party with some friends and then had a few family parties too.  I thought this year that instead of doing one gigantic birthday party, I'd do a few smaller parties.  Let me tell you that I didn't save on time/money/party panic by having the smaller parties...so I might hop back on the huge-shin-dig train because there isn't much difference. 

Vivi changed Molly's diaper and the powder was in reach therefore the "CasperMolly" in the top right.

Tutu Party with some pals.

Molly and her G.Grandma Breden celebrated their birthdays together which explains the matching tiaras.

I love this video.  It was taken on her the morning of her big day.  She's such a little rug rat first thing in the morning.  I don't think she expected the paparazzi at such an early hour and Colt turned every light on within seconds giving her poor eyes a jolt.  I shall name this video...'Hey Molly, Mornin'...Hey Molly, Mornin'...Hey Molly, Mornin'...Colt would be a good Walmart greeter.

 It was a special day for my baby girl.  She's growing so fast!

Two years ago this week my Dad was in the ICU recovering from brain surgery.  Today he babysat Colt and Molly while I went for a jog.  Just re-reading those two sentences bring tears to my eyes. 

Here's what I've learned over the last two years...

1.  Listen to your body.  Trust your instincts. 

2.  If you get hurt on the job, don't expect Workers Comp to take care of you. LOL.

3.  Never lose your sense of humor...even on the crappiest of days.

4.  Don't pay your lawyer upfront...he'll get lazy. True story.

5.  When you don't have the money for the doctors bills, God will work it out.

6.  Silly putty is skin tone and is good for filling in drill holes in your skull.

7.  When you're down and out, look up.

8.  Accept charity when hands are extended.

9.  When you can't remember something, blame it on your subdural hematoma.

10.  Never hang up the phone without saying, 'I love you'.

11.  Make sure you actually LOVE the person you're saying 'I love you' to in #10. Ha!

12.  Be thankful for all the things you do have instead of the things you don't.

13.  Slow down.

14.  Money will not change things that really matter.

Dad is doing great and I'm so thankful to God. 

Every single day we talk about the injury because my parents are in the middle of a lawsuit again workers comp.  Two years later and we're still fighting for him to get paid for the year he was off work because of his on the job injury.  It's a confusing mess but what it comes down to is we have hope that justice will be served.  We're not promised that life will be easy.  It's not easy, by any means, but it is always good.

We're still thankful Lord!

cookies

i've got a lot to say

I'm playing catch up on...

• my guts.  I had my colonoscopy a few weeks ago and an ultra sound right after that.  Both came back clear and healthy lookin.  It's good I'm healthy lookin, but it's also pretty frustrating that we still had no answers.  After my colonoscopy I decided to cut wheat out of my diet just to see what would happen, I had already had blood tests showing that I did not have siliac disease but I thought what the heck, I'll give it a try.  Magically all my pain went away and it was amazing.  I did miss my toast and the occasional goldfish cracker I would snatch from Colt's lunch but I survived.  After about 2 weeks of feeling good my stomach aches came back with a vengeance. I am still staying away from wheat until I meet next Thursday with a GI doctor.  I'll probably need an upper GI.  Weee!
• my disappearing fatness.  Andy and I have about 1 week left in our weight loss competition for this month.  I'm pleased to say that I have 1 pound to go!  I'm just going to go ahead and say how much I had to loose this month to win because I honestly don't mind sharing and hopefully someone will get inspired or something...but will have lost 9lbs this month.  That's a lot of weight!  My total will be 28lbs since June.  I can feel that $100 burning a hole in my pocket as we speak.  I saw a really cute jacket at Target that has my name written all over it.  I love that I haven't even won yet I've found a way to mentally spend all my winnings.
• funny disappearing fatness timing.  Two days before our weigh in we're having a big tailgate for the ND game.  Food, Drinks and more FOOD!  The day after that is Halloween.  Candy, Chocolate and more CANDY!  Will power don't fail my now!  I've been thinking about my strategy and I might wear my retainers to stop the likeliness of food entering my mouth...on the other hand the likeliness of something calling me a dork goes up dramatically with this idea.
• andy.
• On Wednesday Andy reports to the ambulance as a paramedic.  Today was his last day on the fire truck.  I'm proud of his hard work and excited for his raise.
• Andy is also getting skinny.  His pants are ridiculously big and he needs a new belt because he no longer has enough notches to keep them up.  It looks like he has old man pleats in his camo shorts they're so big.  I would never have done well this year if it weren't for his support.  He's really awesome.
• money.  We've been patting ourselves on the back lately.  This month, with Andy's over time and our diligence to keep living on a tight budget we were able to put an extra $750 on our car payment for this month.  Again,  I'm sharing this to brag on ourselves but more importantly to encourage people to do the same.  It's possible!  Only $1,000 more and we will owe NO. ONE. ANYTHING.  Totally debt free!  We owed about $12,000 a year ago and it's almost over with.  I see myself jumping on the bed throwing dollar bills in air already.  Who knows, maybe one day we'll even go on a vacation.  Just one step closer to our life goal of being skinny and rich.  :)  I kid.
• one of my favorite times of the day.  I love when my family is all tucked away for the night and I lay my head on the pillow and start to pray.  I so enjoy reflecting on my day with God.  I thank God for pairing me with Andy.  I ask for wisdom on how to be a better mom.  I pray for my friends.  I thank God that Molly hasn't started crying even though I know she spit her paci out a few minutes ago.  The good, bad and ugly...I absolutely love my life.  I could cry just thinking about the thankfulness and love that I have for my maker.  I'm what they call a happy human.
• molly haab.
• She turned 6 months last week.   I swear she tripled in size last month.  We got to her doctor appointment this week.  I'm excited to see how big she's gotten. 
• She still isn't rolling but she's close to sitting by herself. 
• We started giving her food this week too.  She likes bananas. 
• She is still really chatty.  She's always squealing and complaining about how her socks never stay on.  She's my angel baby.  And really, she is just that.
• colt. 
• Little boy has been referred to as a 5 year old on more than a few occasions this week.  When you see my "5 year old" throwing a tantrum it's because he's 2.  He only looks 5. 
• He is starting to talk a lot more.  He finishes the last word of every sentence in his prayers [peyss] at night and says 'pounds' when I ask him how much he weighs after he stands on our bathroom scale.  He's cute.
• Today he helped me clean the house and played with Copper for hours on end.  At one point I looked up and found Copper wrapped up in all his blankies and he was laying next to her on her dog bed. 
• hunting.  I'm going hunting with Andy on Monday morning.  I've never been hunting so I thought it would be fun to join.  I'm gonna shoot the BIG BUCK.  Not really, I'll be reading my book club book that I haven't even started yet but my hope is that I'll be there with him when he shoots the big one.  I really just want to spend some time with him doing what he loves to do.  I'm going to take some noisy snacks.

Now we're all caught up and I can sleep good tonight.

the patch 2010

Next year there will be five of us...

Not really, I just made that up. 

uncle penter

Uncle Spence is always good for a nap on the couch.  My kids are blessed to have such a good loving uncle.

Penter n' Colt...

Penter n' Molly...

4 generations

I love this picture.

the parade

Andy is in the honor guard for our Fire Department so for the Memorial Day Parade he got to carry an axe and walk in front of all the trucks and the fire men followed behind.  Carrying an axe might sound stupid but it's actually an honor and cool.  Which means he's kind of a big deal. 

Colt had a blast.  We got rained on while we were there. Not just sprinkled on, but it was like a pitcher of water was being poured on our heads, kind of rained on.  I acted like rain was awesome and getting soaked was the most fun we'd ever had.  He went with it and didn't make one peep.  My little trooper.  Molly slept through the down pour.  She was in her sling and I was carrying her.  With the help of a blankie she didn't get wet at all.  Supermom...right here.

The parade was really fun. There's all sorts of crazy things going on at once. This is another thing I had to video real quick. The bagpipes. Not sure what is more weird...the lady playing that drum and swinging those white pom poms around or that crazy red headed child doing a jig.

I love parades

our first days

I'm back and I'm no longer wearing Molly, I'm holding her! She is awesome. My labor/delivery went so well. I'll post the whole story later.  We just got home and are adjusting to life as a family of four.  Gotta run!  I got babies all over the place.

vivi's glasses

He's only broken a few hundred pair.

just dance

My family is kinda, sorta, really obsessed with Just Dance, the Wii game. Just to prove how good we are, I've sliced and diced some of our home video footage from last weekend. Please make sure you check out how good my little cousin Jack is while busting a move, how talented my Dad is at moving both his arms with only one good rotater cuff and how talented my Grandma is at dancing in high heels. Enjoy!

Featured Dancers: Serena, Tommy, Grandma, Spencer, Jack, Abby, Maddy, Caleb, Mo, Meghan, Dad and Colt.

happy sunday

This is what we've been doing all day.

My heart is full.

under the dryers

Mom and I both had hair appointments yesterday at the same time. We didn't plan that but it was funny and we even got to sit next to each other while our hair color processed. Not that you can really hear anything when you're sitting under that dryer...but we tried.

We had mom's hairdresser take this picture. It's not very flattering. It's like getting your picture taken with wet hair when you look like a drown rat. Never pretty. Mom kept saying "Oh gross! Disgusting! I look like Regis!"

What do you think?

Sorry mom, I couldn't resist. ha!

beatboxing

Who says white boys can't dance?

bidwell

Mom and Dad have a little wooden butler at their house.
We so lovingly call him Bidwell.
He holds things on a tray.
Colt really likes Bidwell.
He gives him hugs and sometimes shares his sippie cup.

Bidwell is also apart of our circus.

the circus

Uncle Spencer first showed Colt that he could juggle with a few clementines from our fruit bowl. So of course, every time Spence comes over Colt runs to the fruit bowl and asks him to juggle whatever is in the bowl. This time it was apples...which blend in with walls that are painted apple green which is why it looks as if Spence is juggling air.
Andy knows how to juggle too. With all the jugglers in the family Colt will randomly grab three balls from his toy box, stick out his tongue [his try face], and start throwing balls in the air. How could you not want to kiss that cuteness all day long???

We've got jugglers and a midget [hi mom!]...we could start a circus.

my table shrunk

While my Mom and Grandma were painting Moll's room, my Grandpa and Andy got busy on a few projects of their own. I somehow managed to 'assist' all the projects that day, put a pizza in the oven and organize the baby's closet.

Their biggest project of the day was cutting down our dining room table. We bought a bar height dining room table three years ago when we moved in our house. Since then I'm pretty sure we've sat at the table maybe 5 times. It's so high my mom needs a forklift just to sit in the chair [she's 4'11', which I think is legally considered a midget. love you mom!] So Andy and Grandpa used a hand saw and got to cutting the table down to normal dining table height. We love our newly shrunk table.

Colt is learning the hard way that the table has shrunk. He used to be able to run under it and now, well...not so much. His head has gotten a few good bonks but they were mostly in the first few days and I think we're past the pain.

It's good to have a carpenter in the family and a loving Grandpa!

christmas card

We didn't take family pictures for our Christmas cards.
I wasn't that organized.
SO, here is a picture from Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas. haha.