Sweet Adeline!

I took a test drive with my new camera lens at the Arboretum today, while my own children were far from cooperative, little Adeline is so photogenic!

Happy Birthday Anthony!!!

Today we helped Anthony celebrate his 3rd birthday! I can't believe he's 3 already, so cute and so full of energy. Here are some highlights!

Anthony enjoying his birthday dinner


Nicholas loved the dirt cake!

Time for a birthday swim!

This kid is full of expressions!

Nicholas checking out the little pool

Time to open some presents!

Nice...






If it has 4 wheels and a battery, CJ has to ride it!


Nick gets a turn too!


Love the chainsaw face!


Amazing Lightning McQueen cake from Auntie Amanda!

Silence is NOT ALWAYS Golden!

I noticed after setting up GeoTracks in the living room

a) Nick was nowhere to be found

b) It was VERY quiet

Here's why!

Ordered!

I'm so excited, my camera lens I've been waiting to come off back-order is finally ready! I can't wait to try it out...

I've done a ton of looking and researching and decided the 35mm is the right one for me, let's just hope it likes me!

Happy Belated Birthday to me! I was going to get a Speedlight (flash) but decided I still like the look of natural light better.

Now who's willing to let me borrow them or their kid to let me practice/play? I know CJ will have about 5 mintues in him, Nick maybe 10.

Christmas anyone?

I can't believe I did this, but I started a Christmas list this week. Something popped into my head for CJ and I thought I better write it down, I'll probably forget by Christmas.

And is it bad that my list has more on it than anyone elses?

Cutie!

Just a cute picture of Nick, and no I didn't enhance his eyes. Plus I wanted to try out a new Photoshop action.

Cool, it worked!

Goodbye Bachelor Furniture!

While if was somewhat entertaining watching the look of terror as people sat on our dining chairs - wondering am I going crashing to the floor?, it was time to get a new dining set.

Charlie also reminded me this was the last of the bachelor days furniture! (Well actually its down in the crawl space if he ever gets lonesome of those days).

Here are some pics of the new goods... I'm loving the bench for the kids. Nick's a little young, but when Dylan and Sophia are over it works great! This picture is just missing the new bar stools, small and black they look great!

Here's the table fully extended, and in use! - it's larger than our actual dining room, but it could easily seat 12. I love that we can have people over, all sit at the table, and have the food on the table! You can see the bar stool in the back corner.

Tiger T-Ball '09 - OVER!!!

While CJ claims he liked playing t-ball this year, I am glad it's over! This is a hard age for organized sports, he liked the batting portion of t-ball, but wasn't too much of a fan of the fielding aspect. Charlie was a trooper and helped babysitcoach.

I probably took around 500 pictures of the coarse of the season, but I'll spare you the 250 pictures of CJ batting and share some of the final day ones.

Doctor Visits

I took CJ and Nick for their 5 year and 18 month appointments yesterday. CJ's been anxious about his appointment since last year when he found out he had to get shots. It was quite the traumatic (ie dramatic) experience for him. From the finger poke to the exam to the shots it was a little much for him. At one point he hid under the exam table and didn't want to come out. After much kicking and screaming it was all over and then he proclaimed, "that wasn't too bad". I felt sorry for the kids in the waiting room, I'm sure they were more than excited for their appointment turn after hearing CJ!

CJs stats:
66 1/2 lbs!
47 inches
blood pressure, hemaglobin and cholesterol were all good

Nicks stats:
22 lbs 5 oz
32 1/2 inches

Today I took Nick for lab work at Childrens. We are getting the food allergy tests done. We can finally know for sure what he's allergic to. They tested him for dairy, wheat, eggs, peanuts, soy and corn. He's only technically reacted to eggs and peanuts, but it would be good to know if there is a food cause for his eczema. They also drew a celiac disease panel (the gluten allergy disease). Love my moms family dearly, but I hope this isn't a trait he inherited from the Pederson family. Nick was quite the trooper for his blood draw, much less than CJs drama yesterday. One poke, a few tears, a sucker and everything was all good in the world. Hopefully in about a week we'll know the results. I'm praying for negatives on all tests, but I'm sure there is something that he's reacting to.

Other than that, not much going on this week. CJ has vacation bible school (also was upset because he had to miss yesterday to get his shots) and has been enjoying that quite a bit.

Randoms

Here are some random photos of the week.

Skinny - look at those pants falling off. Today he is 18 months old, many of his 12-18 month pants/shorts are too big (like these). Feeling the fall weather here (ha ha ha), today I went through fall clothes looking to see what I have left from CJ. I realized he can probably still wear his clothes from last spring/winter. I found the pants that CJ had his pictures taken in when he was 15 months old (the white cargo pants from cousin Michelle - I love those pants!). They are a size 18-24 months and way too big for Nick. Maybe he can wear them for his 2 year picture.


CJ and Dylan after playing in the pool and then rolling in the sandbox. Only boys.

I'm pretty sure they're contemplating their next scheme.

Here you missed a spot

Look, I found some dirt!

We checked out a different park in the area, CJ's always willing to go park hunting. This one had a cool pirate ship, but not much for Nick.

My mom is so funny!

The dreaded "cheese face".

Blogger or Facebook?

Should I use the blog or facebook for pics? Facebook is so easy, but I still like to blog once in awhile. I think I need to figure out why my blog is such a pain, there has to be an easier way. Anyone familiar with WordPress? Maybe I should move and try that instead.

Tonja or Emily, chime in if you have this issue... when you upload pics it adds all this unnecessary space that you have to delete out. I hate that it adds photos once uploaded to the top of the page, and there is no easy way to move them to the bottom as your creating your post.

I think I'd rather use my blog for pics and such, but I need to find an easier way. Plus I like the customization of the blog.

World's Largest Wild Rice Festival

It's been quite a few years since I've attended The World's Largest Wild Rice Festival, my hometown of Deer River's community festival. I'm pretty sure CJ has never been, and not sure if Charlie has either. Usually it seems to fall on my weekend to work, but this year all the stars aligned and we were able to attend. Even better the Bain Train, Emily and the Hanson's were there as well.

Saturday morning we kicked off the festivities with the bike rodeo. Basically take a whole mess of kids and their parents and bikes, get a bike inspection, run through some "drills" and then see if your name is called as one of the lucky bike winners. Would you believe CJ and Rylee BOTH won bikes this year!?! The look on CJs face was pretty priceless when his name was called. There were far too many people between us to get a picture. He was impressed his name was called, I was impressed they pronouced LeFebvre correctly!

Reagan ready with her bike...


Rylee's turn...

Family photo op!
CJs turn... CJ actually only got through 2 of the drills before they called it off because it was time for the bike drawings...he wasn't disappointed, he was getting tired of waiting in line...

CJ and the donor of his new bike, Bob Wilhelm - the bike rodeo is named after his son who died in a bike accident years ago, before I was born.

Papa Craig keeping Nicholas entertained

Saturday afternoon we hung around with Papa Craig, unfortunately Grandma Beth was in Fargo for the weekend. While Nick napped, the kids enjoyed a tractor ride from Papa Craig.

I like this photo finish, it looks like an old newspaper clipping

After Nicholas woke up from his 2 1/2 hour nap (hooray for long naps!) we went to Winnie Dam to play and look around.

Emily getting dizzy on the merry-go-round

Who can resist a swing!

R&R

This little guy followed us around and wanted his picture taken. Say cheese, now you're on a blog!

Reagan and Papa

Papa and the older grandkids, where's Nick?

Here I am!

Yes Jamie, it really is the Mississippi!

Plug Hat Point - many great swimming memories here.

No beach + steep cliff to water + poison ivy = Unfortunately, no longer a good swimming place for kids...

Saturday evening Emily, Jamie and I ventured into Deer River for the street dance, woo hoo! Good times! It was great to chat with Tonja, find out Manda's news (congrats!), and talk to people I haven't seen for awhile. I talked to one person for a good 10 minutes before I figured out who it was! Camera stayed at home...no pics, sorry.

Sunday, we went to the parade and then headed home.

Waiting for the parade

CJ is NOT a fan of parade noise - guns, fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, loud bands - you name it, he has his hands over his ears.

Then he found a nice aunt who covered his ears for him, what kind of precedent is she trying to set?

What a great weekend!