Happy Mother's Day!

I had a great day with the girls and Craig for Mother's day. It was very special. I am blessed!

On Saturday night, Craig went to a movie with friends and about 3 minutes after he left both girls woke up and were WIDE awake....sometimes you just gotta say "to heck with it". We came downstairs and laughed and giggled and cuddled and played. Here's a picture from our time...as you can see, there were NO blurry eyed children!

On Saturday afternoon, I ended up working for a few hours and while I was gone, Annika and Kiersten and Craig baked me an Angel Food cake for Mother's Day. It was very sweet. I think I liked seeing the pictures as much as eating the cake! Annika and Kiersten LOVE "helping" in the kitchen!

Annika's Shoe Store

Last week I was driving with both girls to a park when I came across a GLORIOUS sign on the curb "FREE"! I picked up a baby doll high chair, a toy grocery cart, and an old Fisher Price cash register (Grandma and Papa have the same one so Annika was very excited). On Sunday morning we were ready for chuch early (shocker) and so Annika had time to be a little creative....she opened a shoe store in the living room. It was so cute and she was SO proud of herself. Craig bought a pair of shoes for a quarter...but when it came time for me to buy a pair, I guess word had gotten out that it was a happenin' place and she raised her prices to 35 cents.

Annika Goes Shopping

Annika told me that she was all ready to go to the Mall. This is how she dressed herself. Oh, and I guess I didn't inspect her face after lunch too well. Kiersten thought Annika really was going to take her to the mall and was disappointed that she didn't go.

Where does the time go?

Here is a picture of Annika at 1 week old, and another of her at 3 1/2 years at Reiman Gardens. When did she get so big?

Annika's First Bike!

Annika got her first "big girl" bike. We let her get a sticker for every day that she was a good listener, and mostly that she would go right to bed at night and stay there. She did such a great job! We went to Walmart and bought her a 12" bike. She loves it and got the hang of it pretty quickly too. Kiersten saw Annika's new helmet and wanted one too...this is the best we had!

Kiersten's Dedication

Today we had Kiersten's Dedication at our church. It was a really special time for us to go up front at church and agree to teach Kiersten about Christ's love and ask for the church to help us in our journey of raising her. Auntie Lisa, Uncle Ryan and Sam came down for it and we had a lunch after with them, and our small group Bible study friends at my parents house. We've got a big job ahead of us in raising our kids! We pray that they will come to know God's love in a very personal way. When I was dedicated in our same church as a baby, the church elder who prayed, prayed that "I would never remember a day in my life that I didn't know that God loves me". This is also our prayer for our girls.


In front of the church with Karen Heiligenthal (Children's Ministry)

Our family with Pastor Staff

Kiersten with her almost twin cousin Sam who came for the event

Cousin Visit!

Craig's sister and brother-in-law and their two boys, Wyatt and Owen came for a 5 day visit! We all had so much fun together. Too bad they have to live over 600 miles away!

Here's Annika praying for her breakfast (at the top of her lungs everytime). She makes it quite difficult for us to remain reverant! It's just so cute!

It wasn't as nice of weather out as the snow was melting and it rained most of the time so we went out to the Plex to let the kids run around one morning. They loved it as usual!