Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Birthday's Galore!

Happy Birthday to:

Gabby Bieringer! You're ONE already!! What a sweet baby you are and how very loved too. We hope you have a super birthday!

Jessica Yost! I forget your age....hmmmm...21? Just kidding! We hope you have a fabulous birthday and are able to get out and celebrate. I'm sure this birthday is even the more sweeter having another beautiful child looking back at you and smiling!

Cath P! Happy birthday to you!!!! It's been way too long since we've seen you at MOMs group. Hope you have a great day to either pamper yourself or immerse yourself in the love of your hubby and girls!

Anybody else's birthday today that I forgot?? :) God sure has blessed this day!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Happy Birthday Abigail!

Happy 9th Birthday to you Abby! Thanks for letting us share in celebrating your birthday this weekend. We had alot of fun!!! Hope you're having a great day today!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Happy Birthday Syd!

Happy 6th birthday Sydney! We hope you had a fabulous day! Love, Emily, Caitlin, Rachel and Natalie

Monday, February 15, 2010

Be Mine

I forgot to mention Valentines Day in my last post. Before we headed to the Polar Plunge our whole family had a very nice, well behaved breakfast at Country Kitchen. I'm sure people look at us when we come in and wonder what kind of circus we will be. I was very pleased with how the girls acted at the restaurant! :)

Wow-what a weekend!

We started this long weekend out on Friday with the girls having no school. A bunch of us from St. Peter brought our kids over to the Ice Arena in New Ulm to iceskate! It was soooo much fun! Caitlin had skated before but it was Emily and Rachel's first time and I was completely surprised to see Emily just skate away like she'd been doing it forever! She was spinning and jumping-just amazing. Rachel did pretty well. She stayed behind the trainer for the most part and every once and a while would couragiously try on her own or hold my hand. We were able to bring Natalie out on the ice in her sled so that was great. I was able to have fun with the other girls too! Caitlin was skating on one leg and strutting her stuff as well!





Then on Saturday evening we got the girls a sitter and Brian and I went to the Gilbertson's annual Mardi Gras party! As always the Gumbo was delicious, hurricane's were strong yet tasty and the craps table was alive with shouts of joy for those who won and shouts of agony for those who lost. The house looked like it was going to be taken down at one point-Jeff looked a little sheepish but it bounced back at the end! Who knew $10 could get you 4 hours of fun! A lot of catching up was done, thanks in part to no children interrupting. :) Thanks again Gilbertson's for a rockin' party! It is a lot more fun when you're not pregnant!!! :)


Then to close out the weekend.....2010 POLAR PLUNGE-Hallets Pond, St. Peter MN


The group "Nut Migration" plunged in the icy cold waters in 15-20 degree weather with a very cold, crisp northerly wind. The proud (???) wives and children looked on as their loved ones jumped in. Brian took part with 7 others to raise money for the special olympics. They are just crazy though! WHY would you want to do that? Of course Brian comes out and says it really wasn't that bad! Hmmm.... I wonder. After they made their plunge they ran out of the water up a small hill and into the hot tub. Ahhhh...warmth. The girls and I were freezing. I couldn't feel my toes or nose and my arm went numb because I was holding Natalie trying to keep her quilt around her and her face out of the wind. I tried videoing the event but because I couldn't feel my finger I didn't realize that it had fallen off the button that I had to push to record. So I the only recording of the event was the boys standing at the platform just BEFORE they jumped. Ugh... Oh well. My friend Jen got some awesome pictures and hopefully they come through on this post.


Brian is the 3rd from the right





All in all it was a very fun, memorable weekend!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Natalie's 9 months!


Another milestone! Natalie is 9 months old! Again I know I say it all the time but where did that time go?? She's still a super sweet, wants to play in the middle of the night, loves her sisters, getting two teeth, loves to "taste test" everything, beautiful little girl! I just can't give her enough kisses! It's amazing how much babies change the first year. It's a little hard to believe that in three short months she will more than likely be walking! Wow...

Happy Birthday Charlie

Happy Birthday Charles! Sorry about the Colts....Hope you've recovered! Have a great day!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Happy Birthday Lydia!

Happy Birthday pretty girl Lydia! We can't believe you are two years old already! Have a fun day in the snow today! We love you! Brian, Mandy, Caitlin, Emily, Rachel and Natalie.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Updates

Ok-finally I got the last post uploaded with pictures. I tried 3 times yesterday and it never went thru, so today I am very pleased it is done!

Some updates on the kids:

Caitlin is getting busier and busier with 3rd grade. It's been quite the ordeal getting "organized" and not losing focus on what needs to get done everyday. I feel bad that the minute she gets home her school day continues until supper time. She has to record reading time, piano time, study for spelling each week, work on outlines, paragraph structure and math timings. It wouldn't be too bad but she is very easily distracted by shiny objects!!!!!! (TV) She also decided that she'd like to participate in the Science Fair. It is optional for her this year but she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. Oh boy...just another thing!

Emily isn't quite as busy but she is one that doesn't like to sit down to do homework. For the time she complains about doing it she could've had it done 10 times! The minute she gets home she wants to play with Natalie and Rachel. I don't blame her but man, just a little cooperation would be nice! She does help a great deal with Natalie and tries to keep the peace between Caitlin and Rachel. That itself is a full time job!

Rachel luckily doesn't have homework! Yippee!! She does still enjoy preschool which is good since she still has another year of it! Every Thursday two other moms and I take turns taking the kids after school so every once in a while it's just Natalie and I. Rachel loves to play with her friends but sometimes come Thursday everyone is just a little tired and there tends to be times where everyone just doesn't get along. Hmmmm...not quite done with naps perhaps!?

Natalie is getting into EVERYTHING! That child wears me out! For some reason she seems to find all the little dust bunnies, paper, old food, etc. on the floor and wants to eat it. This is making me upset because now I really have to make sure the floors are clean and I'm just not doing a very good job at it right now! She will be 9mo next week already and I don't know where the time went. She is pulling herself up by the couch or toybox and walking around them. She is cutting her bottom two teeth right now and she's not showing us her cheerful self, instead she is a bit crabby. Hmm... I suppose we'll give her a break. Still haven't figured out why she wants to play at 2am though. :)

Brian is still busy at work I think. Sometimes its not until the end of the week I find out what he's been doing. Very rarely does he get the "happy" Mandy-she only pokes her head out mid morning. Crabby-tired Mandy is who he gets to come home to every night. He still keeps coming home though so she must not be too bad! :)

I think you all know what I'm doing....sitting on the couch, eating bon-bons and watching Oprah, right??!! :)

Have a good day everyone!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

For the Birds
















I had purchased this bird feeder a couple of years ago and it's been stashed in our attic. When we had that rainy icy weekend a couple weekends back I pulled it out for the girls to put together. They worked very nicely together to get it done and I think this spring the birds will LOVE it! Here are the pics!

Happy Belated Birthdays

Happy Belated B-day to my mom (1.29.10) and Kyle (1.30.10)