Bond.... James Bond

I prefer my milkshakes, shaken not stirred!

Wooohooo!

Owen at the Mall of America loving the kiddie coaster. He has been on a kick lately of holding his hands up in the car when we go over big hills to pretend he is on a roller coaster. So he was very excited to get to ride the real thing ! He held his hands up the entire tide yelling, YEAH WOOHOO! And screaming. I'm sure glad I have to adventure loving kiddos.

The activity formerly known as making bread...

Last week I spent many evenings out harvesting the wheat from our family farms. I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to be a part of harvest and enjoy seeing how excited my father-in-law gets when it's time to start cutting. It truly is a fun time to be at the farm, and on Saturday the kids and Melissa got to come out and help out for a few hours. Harper used to call harvest, making bread. Now her brother has taken to calling it mowing the wheat. Both are great descriptions of what takes place, but at different points in the process. Not to mention Owen gets thoroughly excited by combines and our big wheat trucks. I got to load the kiddos up on the combine and go a few rounds cutting in the field, Harper loves to play with wheat on the combine and apparently Owen likes to play with the combine horn. Either way I feel lucky that my kids and I get to partake in and share the harvest experience every year.

Things that make my heart smile...

I don't think the following pictures require much explanation for why they make my heart smile. Just another moment when I realize how blessed I am.

31 years young!

Already got the best birthday card ever from my best buddies! Not to mention got to have breakfast with them all this morning! Lovin it!
Harpers school performance was amazing, always great to have those moments to be a proud parent.
Ended the school day at lunch with my colleagues, almost all of them came to lunch to celebrate my birthday, I really do work with some great people.
We kicked off the evening after we picked Owen up from day care and visited his new 7-11. He has been waiting for months for that thing to get finished. He was so excited that he was shaking a little when I told him we were going there. It is an awesome 7-11 by the way, coming from a connoisseur of convenience stores. We got a round of drinks and snacks, so glad it opened today!
We had a delicious dinner of PB&J and a gift (my sweet new running headphones, no more sweat slippage for my ears!) and booked it out of the house to Harpers softball game. Those games are always enjoyable on so many levels, plus I got to be dugout Dad again.
The evening was capped off with a delicious dessert of peaches, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream. What a combination! All in all my 31st birthday was perfect, just the way I like it, low-key and having fun with my family. Many thanks to all for a great day and for the many well wishers I had today (many texts wishing me a happy birthday)! Here's to another great year and many more to come.

All Growed Up!

So Owen says, "I'm gonna sit up here, drink my milk and look at this page"(referring to our local paper). By the age of four, we may have to be fetching his pipe and slippers. Every three year olds dream evening right? What a funny guy.

Perfect Weather

We have definitely been outside this week taking full advantage of this beautiful weather!

Advanced degree....

I can proudly claim that I am now among those highly intelligent (questionable) persons possessing advanced degrees. I have to most importantly thank my family, all of the Wednesday nights over the past two years that Melissa handled everything and everyone else who pitched in over the last two years, couldn't have done it without all of you. Again I want to thank Melissa for the hours of professional conversation we had, I'm sure they gave me a huge advantage. Mostly thanks to everyone for their encouragement and support! I have now joined the elite education ranks with the rest of my family!

Marathon..... Check!

This morning found Melissa, Larry, Loy, Cole, Melanie, and myself heading downtown to the Memorial for our respective races. You may have known that Melissa and I have been training to run the full marathon..... That's right 26.2 freaking miles, crazy or committed? That's debatable. All that to say, Melissa suffered an unfortunate ankle injury and was unable to run the full marathon, instead she threw herself into organizing all of the family marathon viewing spots. This also gave her the opportunity to run the one-mile fun run with Harper, I think they had a blast, I was at like mile 13 when they started, so I don't actually get to see. Melissa organized a flawless viewing route and schedule and they were able to see me and cheer me on at every spot, which was necessary and very appreciated. Each time their cheers gave me the boost I needed to keep going. The most exhilarating part was seeing them at the finish line cheering me on to the end! Well, I finished in jut a shade under four hours and thirty minutes. It hurt, but nothing feels better than knowing I ran each of those 26 miles! Takeaway message? If I can do it anyone can do it! Thanks to everyone for their support, especially Melissa! I'll be there for you next year!

Big Boy's Birthday

Owen is three today..... It seems like just yesterday the doctor was pulling that rollie pollie baby out. He has been a pretty good toddler and is already growing into a smart and mischievous little boy. Very much akin to Dennis the menace. His first three years have been pretty amazing and I can only imagine the adventures in store for the future. I love you little buddy, Happy Birthday!

You know your playing hard when...

Your hair looks like this after a softball game. Last night the Stars played a tough game, Harper and company were smacking the ball all over and she was flying around the bases. It makes me very proud to see how far she has come so far this season. But the best part is she is having a blast and her Mommy is the dugout manager, so she's right there with her every game. Go Stars!

Stomp the Jayhawks

11/3/11 - (this was supposed to post in November) On Saturday We got the opportunity to take the kids to Stillwater and attend the football game. Harper is a veteran of OSU football, but it just so happens that this was Owens very first game. It really came as no surprise that he loved it from the get go. "Oh a football player", was all he could say for like the first ten minutes. It was funny though because before this time his idea of a football player involved his cowboy boots and his cape and they kicked a football. So this was probably eye opening. His next point of fascination came with the Orange Power chant

His new obsession

Recently Owen has become very smitten with his swing. Anytime the weather is remotely pleasant he begins tugging on me, or Melissa, or Harper and asking us to go swing him. So far this spring I think his record is 2.5 hours in the swing. We'll see how Lon it lasts.