Ellie Idol

This video is somewhat old (I think from March), but one we just couldn't forget about! Enjoy!

T-Ball - The 1st Season

Aubrie completed her first year of T-ball for team "Strawberry Shortcakes," and it looks like she may be signed to a long-term contract extension next year.


Aubrie won the "most improved player" medal! We're proud of her work ethic and of course cuteness! Enjoy highlights of Aubrie's 1st season in the music video production below.

While Mom was away ...

Nothing like a good taste of mud. Where was Daddy anyway?

Happy First Birthday Teyah!!

My baby had her FIRST birthday Saturday! Teyah is just a ray of sunshine in my life. We had a great family day and made some awesome memories. I have to say she "takes the cake" between the three girls of the most entertaining cake eater. Here's the video, feel free to skip the singing to get to the funny part ...












I believe in SPOILING our kids on their birthday and Christmas, and the rest of the year we usually don't give them hardly anything. So when it's their birthday we totally party!


Our town had a parade in honor of our little Teyah (well not really for her, but it was fun anyway).


At dinner at the Olive Garden, our waiter saw Tey's shirt and surprised us with a breadstick candle and song!

Teyah LOVED having a huge breadstick to herself.

Here are a few facts about Teyah:

-With all three of our kids we've had a "surprise" genetic something. Aubrie is a lefty, Ellie has very curly hair, and Teyah is extremely petite. Unfortunately, Teyah has been sick this week, so I took her in Friday (has her third ear infection) and found out she weighs 17 lbs 12 ounces. I looked online, and it looks like she doesn't even make the 5th percentile! Yikes! The sad thing about that is it's going to be a long time until she weighs enough to be able to put her in a forward-facing carseat (the recommended weight is 20 pounds).

-She is probably my best talker at this age. She says: hi, Mom, more, Dada, all done, ball, Ellie (Eyi), Aubrie (Auba), up, uh oh, yes (uh huh), yeah, out ... I think there's more, but that's all I can think of right now.

-Teyah is not walking yet, but she seems to be close and also doing it backwards from how my other kids learned to walk. She can stand up in the middle of the room all by herself and even without pushing herself up from the ground with her hands. It's quite impressive (Dave says he can't even stand up the way she does). She will stand there forever but usually only attempts about 2 steps before she sits down or falls over.

No tomatoes here

I am full of Ellie stories this week. Yesterday, it was storming and she was scared of the thunder, so she decided to say a prayer. In her prayer, she said, "Thank you that the tomatoes didn't come inside our house." After the prayer, I was laughing and trying to figure out why she would be afraid of tomatoes (other than the recent salmonella scare). Then, Aubrie said, "Mom, she's trying to say tornadoes!" Oh, silly me. Of course!

Lake Elmo

I totally forgot to take pictures, but last night we went to Lake Elmo (a filtered swimming lake with a beach) with a bunch of friends. The girls were super excited, but they weren't quite sure what to expect at a lake with the name of Elmo. They were trying to figure it out, and Ellie said, "I think Elmo is going to pop out of the water ... or maybe we're going to have to look everywhere for him and yell really loud: 'MRS. ELMO, WHERE ARE YOU?'"

The Dancin' Video

Unfortunately, this is just the dress rehearsal because they wouldn't let us take video at the recital. I think she was extra amazing at the recital!

The Dancing Beauty Queen

Our little "Dancing Beauty Queen" was the star of her dance recital performance. She knew every move and danced right on beat, smiling and singing the words to the song!


Our little performer loves to be on stage! She said she wasn't nervous at all and just had a ball.


Ellie was so proud of her sister and says she really wants to do it next year too.


We were treated with the arrival of my sister Lauren just in time for the recital. Lauren is a trooper since she basically went straight from her all-night post-graduation party to the airport to come here.


After the recital, we had some adventure as we raced home to beat the storm that supposedly was dropping golf ball-sized hail. We didn't quite make it home before the dime-sized hail hit our car, but that's not so bad. The night continued with a handful of tornado sirens. At one point, Dave went outside to checkout the storm and happened to see these "wall clouds" (the clouds that produce tornadoes) forming. Then he noticed it starting to rotate. He then decided to join us in the basement! As he came down, we heard on the news how a "trained spotter" had located a rotating wall cloud in our area. Despite all the sirens, crazy clouds and hail storms, none of the funnel clouds touched down. (For those of you who don't know much about tornadoes, it starts as a wall cloud, then rotates and becomes a funnel cloud, and once it touches the ground it becomes a tornado.)