Kids say the silliest things....

I have been meaning to write down some of the funny things Brock says. I've decided to write them here and share them with you. I will need to do this more regularly because I can only think of one right now.

Brock has a blanket (we call it his bunka) that he loves. He has grown very attached to his bunka. He wraps it around his left index finger and smells it all the time. The other day I asked him what his bunka smelled like. He thought about it for a second and then said in a very serious voice, "Earth".

Brock and Rayna

Brock loves his sister SO much. He's always looking out for her. She was crying today and Brock looked concerned. I told him Rayna was sad. Brock came up to her and said, "It's okay baby Rayna" and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Brock wanted to share his blue bus with Rayna...

and his yellow bus. What a nice brother.

Kisses for Rayna (what a lucky girl).

My little cuties.

"It's so big!"

Here's a little video from our trip to the Minnesota Zoo. Brock is talking to a stranger about the bear.

October snow

Josh and I went to Mexico for our honeymoon and had just found out we were pregnant with Brock the day before we left. As we were trying to figure out how to tell our families, I thought, "why don't we buy a tiny little outfit and wrap it up and give it to your folks and let them figure it out". We had no idea if it was a boy or girl and this dress is what we decided to buy. It was a very special moment around the dinner table when they opened the box and realized what we were telling them. Brock did not wear the dress, but here is our dear Rayna in the dress we bought in December of 2006.

Daddy is really hoping Rayna is a snuggle bug.

What a crazy year for weather. Snow in early October. This was our first snow. We had a bigger snow fall 2 days later. It's all gone now (thank goodness). Brock could not get outside fast enough.

Leif Erikson Day

Frank Williams...winner of the boat race.

Congratulations Frank!
We had a great turn out this year. Here are some pictures of the evening. The boat races are the highlight of the evening but Ikea's meatballs take a close second. Thanks to everyone who brought goodies to share. We had a great time and we hope to see everyone again next year.
Leif landed first!

Lanky Hank

Brock has this book about Elmo's dad taking Elmo to a baseball game. The star player is named Lanky Hank. Brock loves the book and one day he grabbed a ball and said "Lanky Hank" and threw the ball in this awkward manner (which you will soon see). When Daddy got home, I said, "Brock, show Daddy how you throw like Lanky Hank". He grabbed the ball and you will see what he does. I think it's pretty observant of him to know that the pitcher in the book lifts his leg when he pitches the ball, too bad Brock lifts the wrong leg. He's gotten quite good at throwing the ball this way.

Twinkle twinkle...

Here is Brock singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for me.

Leif Erikson day 2009 video

A Trip to the beach

On one of the last nice days of summer, we all took a trip to the beach. When Josh and Brock went for a walk (run) along the path I was able to lay Rayna down for a few photos on the beach. Brock ran so much he chafed the inside of his thighs SO badly he walked like he was holding a bowling ball between his legs for a day. He went to bed with lots of cream on his poor swollen and puffy thighs.

Fun in the sun!

The many faces of Rayna...

Brock having fun at home.

This is Rayna laying on the foot stool in her pretty dress, which I should have ironed.

Here's another angle...can we say "noodle legs"?

Lots of work

When my sister Sherry was in town we painted the basement in a "Word World" theme. We spent so many hours on this basement. Here are a few pictures. When it's completely finished I'll post more pictures.

My sister Sherry holding Rayna. She was here over Labor Day. Sorry for the delay in posts. I also have pictures from our trip to the State Fair, but that will have to come at a later time.
Thanks again for all of your hard work while you were here. I love the basement and I love you!

Brock saying, "Hi MOM!"

Watch them grow...

Brock with Rayna at 2 weeks and then at 7 weeks. Wow, 5 weeks makes a huge difference.

Rayna meets some very important people

I'm still learning some of the functions of my new camera. I found this option called "Happy Faces" which allows me to add a smile to a face that doesn't have a smile. I was playing with this feature and thought the results were pretty funny and worth sharing. The photo above is the original photo...no smile

This is a computer generated smile. The camera has a scale of 1-5 for how big you make the "fake" smile. This is a 5.

This is a 3 on the smile scale. Some of the ones I played with looked pretty natural (not like this one).

This is my dear friend Gail. She was one of my classmates in x-ray school. She really enjoyed meeting Rayna.

Gail had a brain tumor removed while we were in school together (2004).
It came back and she just had a second surgery in August of this year (2009) to remove as much of it as possible. The sling you see is supporting her broken collar bone, which she got from falling off of her bike one day when she had cabin fever.
It was great seeing you again Gail. I hope your collar bone feels better soon!

Ben and Emily welcomed their beautiful baby girl to the world on September 22. Gabrielle Teresa weighed 10 lbs. 2 oz. and was born sometime around 2:00 pm. Here she is side by side with Rayna. Gabrielle is 8 days old and Rayna is one day shy of 7 weeks. They were both 21 inches long at birth. It's amazing how much they grow (and stretch out) in 7 weeks! Welcome to the family little Gabrielle!

Eyes open!

Here are Brock and Brayden playing in the living room of Ben and Emily's place.

Here is a 7 week picture of Rayna. She just had a bath and was warming up under our lights on the kitchen table. It's amazing how much heat those little "candle" style bulbs put off. It reminds me of a science experiment I did in grade school when I grew bean plants under different types of light. Let's just say incandescent light bulbs did not win.

Rayna has begun to smile. It's pretty tricky to catch her on camera. This is either the beginning or the end of a big one.

Rayna is waving "Good bye"
I'll post some more pictures of Brock soon.