Family Pictures

On our way up to Craig's parents for Thanksgiving, we stopped in the Twin Cities and had our friend from college, Sonja, take some family pictures of us. She does amazing work (http://www.photosbyjs.blogspot.com/)! Here's some of the favorites.

Annika's 3rd Birthday

Annika turned 3 years old! We started the day off with Nana and Granddad over for presents and monkeybread. We gave Annika a doll, named Lily, and right away she started the process of changing Lily's clothes over and over and over! We had a princess party for Annika. Annika invited three of her friends over for the morning. It was so much fun to watch a bunch of 2 1/2 to 3 year olds interact with each other!

What princess party can be complete without a princess cake! I'm actually pretty proud of myself for this attempt at cake decorating! Watching the girls play "pin the crown on the princess" was pretty funny. Annika couldn't stand that the crowns weren't all in the right place on Cinderella!
A great 3 year old lunch of pb&j, grapes, and goldfish!

Harvest Time

Annika got to have her first combine ride tonight at the Greenfield's farm. She LOVED it! She was so excited all day to go to the farm and ride the tractor. Little did she know the size of it (not just the John Deere riding lawn mower that Uncle Dale has)!

It was really 21st century farming with a whole computer system with GPS that literally drives the combine for you....It has sensors that "feel" the ground to move up or down, tell you the moisture content for the corn and the number of bushels harvested.



She was so amazed to watch the back of the combine fill with corn after it got "eaten" in the front...and then loved watching it get emptied into the other tractor driving next to us. What a cool experience! I grew up in Iowa and didn't get my first combine ride until 3 years ago!
Annika now wants to be a farmer when she gets big "just like Lyle" (though she still wants to be a princess too). I think she'd look really cute in her pink dress and tiara driving a combine through the fields.

ACCESS luncheon

We had a luncheon today to raise money for the domestic violence shelter in Ames at The Plex. All of the money raised went to the kids who stay at the shelter to do special things to give them a fun time during an awful family situation. The stories we heard during the luncheon were heart wrenching. To uproot your kids and have to flee and hide. I got sad just thinking about kids in an unfamiliar situation and having left behind their blankie or favorite stuffed animal...not knowing what's going on. I'm so thankful for our family! There were 16 tables, all decorated by different "hosts". Here's a picture of my table. It was fun to decorate and to see everyone elses creative ideas! I had fun making this table arrangement from $5 worth of flowers from Walmart and branches, vines, leaves, and berries I "pruned" off bushes and trees around town. Don't all things need a little pruning in the Fall?

She's Walking...A Little!

Kiersten took her first steps today, 4 days under 10 months! She woke up from her nap and was having a blast bouncing on her knees in the crib. I put her on the floor and she just stood there for like 30 seconds...then Craig was coaxing her with toys to walk to him...she took two steps before getting down and crawling. Annika and I got so excited that we both were screaming. We all piled in the car to my parents house to see if she would do it again and she took some steps for them too...we're in for it now! (This picture was taken the other night by a friend of mine from HS, Rachel Rooke...her eyes awesome in it)

While Dad's Away...They'll Get Dirty!

Craig really doesn't like the girls to get dirty...or to play with dirt. I'm not sure if it's more that they get dirty, or he doesn't want to do the work of us giving a bath and washing clothes. Either way, while Craig went to go workout, we all went outside and....

... Had some fun!