Justin Lee Jansen

Here's a couple of pictures of the little bugger. He sure is a cute baby, nice chubby cheeks. I can't even believe the hair that he has. Dan and I are pretty sure that he's got more hair then Emily . . . I wonder if they'll stop for a haircut on the way home from the hospital??

Happy Birthday to Louie!!!

One year ago today, I was recovering from pushing out the 10+ pounder, drug free!
It is hard to believe that it has been a whole year. Time is just flying by.
Louie got a great birthday present today, he has a new baby cousin!
Justin Lee Jansen was born this morning in Orlando! He was 8 pounds, 11 ounces and 21 inches long. All is well with Auntie Stacy and Justin. Congratulations!
Uncle Mark was very excited to have another set of twig and berries at their house!
Hopefully, we'll see pictures of him soon.

Family pictures

We had pictures taken yesterday. I was hoping that the weather would cool off and the humidity wouldn't be too horrible. After the oppressive humidity on Saturday night, Dan and I were nervous. When I got up with Emily 5am on Sunday morning, it was awesome! No humidity and a fabulous cool breeze. The AC turned off and all windows were open.
Emily and Louie had a great time with Olivia. I think she really got some nice shots of everyone.
Here's a link to see a few of the images that she took:

http://oliviawagnerphoto.blogspot.com/2007/08/emily-and-louie.html

I can't wait to see the rest of them!

Favorites from the 4th of July

Papa brought along his "busy bee" and was playing with the kids. Louie loved the busy bee. This is a cute picture of he and his papa.

I realized that I didn't share these pix of Drew from Larsmont. He is such a funny kid, especially with the purple tongue from his sucker.

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Get In Trouble (times two!)

It's been hot, hot, hot in Minnesota lately. We know what hot weather brings, lots of red, sweet and ripe tomatoes. Tomatoes mean BLT's. Yummy! They are so good and worth every bite. Emily loves the cherry tomatoes. She stands and eats them right off the vine in the backyard. Hopefully, she will continue her love of tomatoes.

Louie figured out how to climb up the slide backwards. The kids never ceases to amaze us with all his new tricks. Everyday is something new.

I realized as I was writing in his baby book last week that he and Emily started walking within the same 12 month period. We're pretty sure that he'll be running faster than she does shortly. He already can get to the top of the stairs faster. He has no fear of anything and Old Lady Pelletier won't even go down one step without turning around and holding on. He just goes head first.

The kids are really enjoying the sandbox this summer. Lou is always thinking that there is something edible. He usually has a big mouthful when he sitting in there.

Look, he's got three teeth now! But already eating corn on the cob. . . On Saturday, we took Emily to Kids Hair and she got her first "real" haircut. I was surprised how she sat in the chair so nicely and let the lady trim up her hair. I usually just give it a trim in the tub, but thought she could use a memorable cut. It was crappy and rainy on Saturday, so we went to Ikea and walked around. About 5,000 other people thought that was a good thing to do as well. We had dinner there too. Emily LOVES the Swedish meatballs. Lou loves the french fries. They both LOVE chocolate milk.

Finally, some new pictures!!!

Sorry, it's been a busy couple of weeks and we haven't had time to upload pix to the computer.

Here are a couple pix from the last couple of weeks.Emily discovered that she loves smores.Enjoying the water of Lake Marian at Dad and Grandpa Don's fishing tournament. Lou, doing what he does best: Climbing and standing on top of whatever he can!

The Latest BIG News!!!

We've had several developments at our house over the last week.
But the most important: Louie started walking, baby steps . . . .
Dan took the kids to the Mall of America yesterday, they were playing in LegoLand. Emily was being very clingy and shy, Louie was off and running.
He is very good at standing up by himself in the middle of the floor, even with toys in hand. Yesterday, he decided to take more than his usual two step. He took seven at the Mall.
Last night when I got home from work, he took 10 steps across the living room floor. He wants so badly to walk and be up and off the floor.
To Dan and I, it just means more trouble. The little bugger is very crafty, he knows that anything that moves can be pushed up to something and make it easier to climb up it.
He climbed in the doll cradle and up on to the little kitchen cupboard last night! He also likes to stand on top of the kiddy table in Emily's room and try to look out the windows.
He really has no fear. Last week, he moved the activity table across the room and tried to climb into the curio cabinet in the living room, he wanted a closer look at Claire's fish that we were babysitting.
We'll post some new pictures shortly.

Vacation, continued

Here are a couple more pictures from vacation.

Summer Vacation!!!!

We went to Larsmont Cottages for summer vacation with the Jansen Family over the July 4th holiday. It was lots of fun! Larsmont is located just south of Two Harbors on Hwy 61. It is a beautiful place. We really enjoyed the amenities there, especially the nightly smores at the lodge and the fires down by the lake each evening. The first two nights, there were some amazing moon rises over Lake Superior. Dan and I took Emily on the Duluth Scenic Railway, her first train ride. It went to Two Harbors for the afternoon, we took the train back to the resort. We also went to the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth. The kids really had fun there, Emily and Louie especially liked the tank with the river otters in it. Drewman really enjoyed toasting his own marshmellows for the smores. Jared enjoyed eating them.

A view from the second floor balcony. The property that Larsmont is built on, used to be a campground.

In Memory of Hank . . .

On Friday, June 29 Dan and I put our cat, Hank to sleep.
It was a very difficult decision, but one that had to be made. He had twelve years with us.
We will miss our Mr. Fat Cat.