Bed Time....

We switched Seth into a big boy bed a little over a week ago. Last week we took down the crib and re-arranged the boys' room. He is a bit of a rascal when it comes to staying in his bed. He likes to get out and wander a bit until we hear him and tell him to get back in his bed.

A few days ago it dawned on me to just snuggle with him a little longer in his bed to calm him down a bit more before he goes to sleep. Well, here is a picture of how he snuggles. REALLY close to me!! When it comes to Love Languages I'm starting to think that Seth's is Physical Touch....

Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend of fun with friends and family! Saturday we headed out to a lake cabin to spend time with friends and we had a refreshing time catching up and hanging out. When we got back on Saturday Dan's brother and sister in law and their family were all here and so we got to spend some great time with them as well. They spent the night and so we went to church with them Sunday and spent some of the afternoon with them 'playing' and chatting. All in all, it was a great weekend!!

Tubing with dad

Kayaking in the rain

Daddy - Daughter hot tub

She didn't actually ride on the jet ski, but she was there long enough for a picture! :)

Josiah rode on the jet ski and had a great time...boys will be boys!

A Week In Review....

Getting ready for 'popcorn and a movie' night

Josiah DESPERATELY wants to learn how to mow the lawn. He wants to start his own lawn mowing business and even asked me to make him a business card. He has a ways to go, but he was more then willing to give it a try with help from dad.
Don't worry...dad is nearby...but we have 2 boys that love to mow the lawn. As long as that passion lasts, in a few years we'll have the most maintained yard around!

He has now learned how to climb in and out of the window wells. Thankfully I don't have to worry so much about him falling in now! He likes to play in their with the frogs. What a BOY!

Josiah 'dog sat' for grandpa for a week. we had a lot of fun with Chester, but by the end of the week Josiah's desire for a dog was gone. He loves that grandpa has a dog and he can visit, but he doesn't think that we need one anymore. Phew! (the funniest part is that Chester is one of the easiest dogs I've ever met...can you imagine how Josiah would feel about the work of a new puppy!)

Our helpful little boy...he may be a rascal, but he is cute and ALWAYS willing to help in any way!

Who's under that mask???

This little cutie!

The Great Chase....

When a mom loves her child.....

Last week was a bit crazy at our house. We did a kid swap with Dan's brother and so we had our niece Hailey here. She and Alayna play very well together and have lots of fun! The first day we hardly saw them, they played, and played and played! Later on that day Alayna started not feeling well and slowing down a bit....then she really slowed down and we noticed she had a fever. The next day she had a fever of 102 and 103 and just laid down resting. We got her adjusted and she felt a little better, but something was still not quite right. We assumed it was just a virus, or teeth or something similar because she had no symptoms other than a fever and being tired. I kept asking her if anything hurt and she just said her head a little. On Friday she was getting worse and we were in St. Cloud so we brought her to see my sister (also a chiropractor) she checked her over and said if she wasn't feeling better by the next day she'd do a test to rule out a bladder infection. Well, that night her fever rose to 104.5...SCARY!!!! We got her fever down with medicine and the next morning she went in to test for a bladder infection.

Now comes the fun part.....or not really fun, but memorable!! To test for a bladder infection you need to pee in a cup. When you're 4 you go to the bathroom when you need to, not on command! Anyway, there we are, her and I in the bathroom.....she's on the potty, I'm holding the cup in my hand and my hand is in the toilet....I'm sure it would have been quite a sight!!! (what a mother won't do, huh?!) I would bet we were in this position for close to 15 minutes....all that time I'm trying to explain how to make yourself go....trying to get her to drink more....talking about running water....then....finally....she did it!!!

We found out she had a pretty severe bladder infection. Poor thing! It was up too high so she didn't notice it when she went to the bathroom. Kind of scary! Anyway, she's on medication and my pretty girl is back! It's never fun to see your kids sick, but not knowing what was wrong was even worse....I'm so thankful the cause was found and that she's doing so much better now!!

Riga, Latvia...Friday - Saturday

Friday....

We visited the Car Museum in Latvia. It was very fun and interesting! They had old cars, unique cars and historic cars...we have lots of pictures from there, but they don't do it justice so you'll just have to take my work for it. :)

After the Car Museum we went to an orphanage that Calvary Chapel - Latvia (Christa & Vitaly's church) has been visiting to share God's truth with them. We had a time of singing (in both English and Latvian), then we divided the kids by age and shared Truth with the younger kids as well as with the older kids. After that it was time for a great game of sand volleyball! The older kids wanted to take on the Americans (most of the people that were there were American when you consider the fact that just with Dan's family we were 6 of the people out of 10ish)...they won. :) All in all it was a lot of fun!!

Saturday...

Travel day....we left Riga, Latvia at 2:40pm (their time), landed in Minneapolis around 11:30pm (our time). With an 8 hour time difference that adds up to around 18 hours of travel...YIKES! After that we drove to Joe and Chrystal's house, then headed to St. Cloud to spend the night...we crawled into bed and collapsed at 2am that Sunday morning. EXHAUSTED! The trip was a blast and memories were made that we will forever cherish! Thanks again Christa & Vitaly!!!!

Riga, Latvia....Thursday

The rest of our trip....

Thursday we enjoyed shopping at the mall. The prices are more expensive so there weren't many purchases, but it was fun to shop around! Then we enjoyed lunch at a delicious restaurant called Lidos. Unfortunately it rained (I mean POURED!!!) while we were eating and so the boys didn't get to enjoy any rides that day, but it would be a fun place to go with a family...great food and then great fun!!

To end the day...as we did most days...we visited our favorite Latvian grocery store...REMI!!! We went there a couple days in a row to start the trip and then decided we should make it a 'tradition' and go every day. Remi and Nerts became a daily occurrence and they were both FUN!! :)