Crazy Saturday

Today was a busy day. Our day started out with a call from Mark's mom telling us

that Grams was having some new complications. Since they were out of town Mark and I headed to the hospital to visit with his grandma while the Doctor tried to figure out what was going on.

While Mark stayed at the hospital I met up with some friends for lunch.

Our friend Melissa is 7 mo. pregnant with a little girl and looking fabulous!

Lisa and her husband Ivan recently moved to Philadelphia so it's always a treat to be able to visit with her.

Lisa and Melissa have known each other since they were very young, and I came into the picture when I was about 11. Since then we've been the best of friends.

After visiting at the hospital for a while Mark decided he was hungry so we ran to Fred's. 

As they say "Worlds Best Burgers" and they aren't kidding.

As shown below: You order by filling out your own order ticket and taking it to the counter.

Afterwards we headed back to the hospital for the rest of the afternoon.

Grams was much more alert today then I've seen her since the stroke. 

I do have a cute picture of her and Oilver, and a short video of them interacting (she was playing high five) that I'll post later.

Parenting and dog training... very similar

No, Oliver was not really in trouble, and the sword is made of lightweight foam:)

Oliver sings the ABC'S

I'm so excited that I finally was able to download a video!

We sing the ABC's and sign them all the time, but I've never 

really seen Oliver copy what I was doing until yesterday. 

You can only make out some of the letters. (Age 15.5 months)

Just another day at the office...

As most of you know Oliver comes to work with me, and has been since he was two months old. I'm now only working 6 hrs a wk on Thursdays and in all this time I've never taken pictures of his time there! So here are two:)

Uncle Ernie pushed Oliver out in this box. He's still so tiny. 

Watching cars. 

Fall is in the air!

Mark made this wonderful pumpkin pie for us after we missed the "Free Pie Wednesday" at Baker's Square. 

Before serving it he threw a little cinnamon on the top and exclaimed "Bamm!"

ERNIE

After the recent trouble at our house (radio, and lawn mower) we decide that we needed, and wanted a dog. We found this little guy at a nearby store. He's a Lab, Border Collie, Sheltie mix, but mostly Lab.  He's 2.5 months old and acts like it:)

Camping

Mark has been wanting to go camping since his birthday (in June) but because of the house, we just haven't had the time to get away. His birthday presents consisted of everything needed to go camping, including a new tent. This last weekend he finally got a chance to use it. I had paid for a "rain-check"(back in June) at a campground in western WI, so we pretty much camped for free!

Mark spent a lot of time and patience making our campfire.  Oliver and I enjoying some down time in the tent.

This whole experience was awesome to see through Oliver's eyes. Our campsite was surrounded by trees and very secluded, so it gave Oliver lots of running room. The picture above was the trail behind our campsite.  It didn't take him long to explore every inch of it. You can't tell here, but it was pretty steep and had lots of rocks sticking out of the ground, but he did just fine.   After walking the trail together we rolled a big rock down the trail and into our campsite.

We had a fantastic time. I especially enjoyed sitting around the campfire late at night with nothing to do but talk. It was a great time to reconnect.

In my family it's always been a camping tradition for my dad to make "campin' eggs" for breakfast. Mark loved it so much that he incorporated it in our camping traditions. 

The Recipe (for 3 hungry campers):

6 eggs

1/3 green pepper

1 whole sm. onion

shredded chd. cheese

salt and pepper to taste

bacon (pre-cooked is best

frozen hash browns

  1 pan

                                                                                 Simmer onions and green peppers in butter until

slightly browned. Then add hash browns. Add         bacon chunks and simmer until heated                                             thoroughly. The add pre-scrambled eggs. Stir 

frequently until cooked (consistency should be                     light and fluffy. Not omelet like) Serve with toast.

  

We recently went out for indian with Madison and Bo, and I had to catch this moment of them eating Peach Ice cream for the first time.

Bo stayed relatively clean

while Oliver made a complete "oinker" of himself. He ate as much ice cream as he could whole, then he drank the rest. 

Dunder Mifflin Infinity 2.0

Mark and I really do not watch much tv. However, we have been hooked on the office since season 1. Each year we eagerly anticipate it's season premier. Luck for us the first episode airs tomorrow night. In early celebration we broke out The Office game, and our Dunder Mifflin shirt. (None of the pictures of Bryana turned out, but she was there)

I realize this looks super silly, but it's so much fun. Oh and I won the game. I'm still debating if that's a good thing, or if I just really need a hobby:)

It's Super-Husband!

I can't help but gush about the wonderful husband God blessed me with.

He came home after a busy and stressful workday, grabbed groceries, then came home to make dinner (he insisted).  

Homemade Pizza, YUM!

After getting dinner going he came outside to fix my car (replacing the cracked radiator hose). 

 What a guy! 

Free movie night!

As kind of a goodbye to summer and kickoff to fall, we headed to a nearby Mall to see a free showing of Madagascar 2! To be totally fair it was Mark's surprise to us. What a thoughtful husband.

It was awesome! Perfect weather, pleasant atmosphere, and tons of freebies. 

Oliver got a balloon Elephant, which he ate in about 3 minutes.

We ate yummy treats, and Oliver actually sat through about half of the movie before falling asleep. The downside to my night was when Oliver dropped my phone in my melted ice cream.

Note: If anyone tries to call me, I sound like I'm under water. I've stopped answering my phone all together.

First Packer game!

Incase you haven't heard, we are officially moved into our house. 

We moved in Friday night, and we're loving it. 

With the first Packer game on Sunday we decided to plan a little party.

We enjoyed yummy snacks, and desserts with my family and grandparent's, all of whom are Bears fans.

Yes, I know it says Favre! It was the only one I could find. 

Dad and Grandpa kept busy giving Mark a hard time....

...but he held his own:) 

We ladies didn't pay as much attention to the game, but we got lots of visiting in.

Thanks for coming everyone! We're looking forward to many more evenings like this in our new pad.

Milwaukee Kite festival

Once again, we headed to the lakefront for a festival. This time it was the Kite Festival.

Oliver loved this big butterfly. He was a little too timid to run under it, but we couldn't pull him away.

The day held several different visually enticing kites, and wind powered "things". 

This was a sort of garden of  pinwheels. 

Here we are sitting to watch the actual show. The performers were incredible. I never realized how much of a workout those kite flyers get. 

This thing was awesome! It was an enormous octopus that equaled the length of two school buses back to back.

Oliver and I ran under it's legs (it was really light-weight) and when it would float down we'd be trapped in it's tentacles :)

A very fun, free day!

We are loving living so close to a very active community.

Our first Mail!

We recently put up our mailbox at our house (don't know why I waited so long) and within a few days we had our first pieces of mail!

I was so excited! It's amazing the little things you take for granted when you don't live in a home of your own.

Unfortunately none of the mail was personalized, but it was the first time I enjoyed looking at "junkmail".

Stinky Feet! Oliver's new favorite game

A full morning

Oliver's Grandpa recently broke his femur (ouch!) and had some heart issues, so he'll be staying with family for the next several months. 

For the next two weeks or so he has moved in with Melby's, so Oliver is going to get a lot of bonding time in.

I'm so happy for him that not only has he gotten the rare chance to be able to live with his Grandparents for a while, but his Great Grandpa as well. What a blessed little boy.

Oliver was very interested in Grandpa Melby's walker, and reaching stick.

After breakfast we decided to make Daddy some blueberry muffins for his mid-morning snack at work. Yummy!

I'm just now getting to the point where I trust Oliver to hold whole pieces of things to eat, instead of small bites (since I've had dozens of very scary choking experiences with siblings).

He was thrilled to be able to hold his own banana....until he ate the peal(explaining the face).

Co-sleeping is the best!

From day 1 Oliver has slept in our bed and because of this, we have been very blessed to share special morning time with him each and every day.  If Mark or I gets up to use the bathroom before Oliver is up, we usually return to him hanging over the edge of the bed waiting for our return.

His favorite new routine is to wake Mark up and snuggle up to him(as shown below), then he takes Mark's arms and wraps them around him. It's the sweetest thing ever!