Congratulations Kellie!

Since Kellie is practically part of our family it only seems fitting I do a post about her big day! She graduated from UND last saturday with a degree in Biology and with honors. She is attending St. Thomas in the Fall for law school and is doing so on a full ride scholarship. Needless to say both her real and surragate families are both very proud of her! We went to her house for a celebration party, there was great food( amazing cupcakes!!) and lots of fun. Her party even included a silly string fight between her and Elias, the kids had so much fun neither one of them wanted to leave!!

The silly string fight it on!

I LOVE this pictue, it captures the essence of Kellie and Elias' relationship..pure fun!


Annie dumped all the blocks out and walked around with a bucket on her head....

Annie playing in the backyard with the big bouncy ball( oh what I would give for a backyard like theirs!)

There was a hole in the fence and Elias though it was pretty neat to look through

Annie finds the closest male to her age and flirts non stop with them. This days target was 14 year old Alex,kellie's cousin.

Kellie openind up a awesome gift from Uncle Jordan, the americana sweater that just keeps on giving( its a family joke gift that keeps showing up!)

Wedding Fun

A couple weekends ago one of Brandon's cousins got married. Brandon went to the wedding with Uncle Jordan while the kids and I ate and got ready at home. We decided it was OK if they got a little crazy during the reception but we didn't want them to ruin the wedding so I staye back with them. The kids had a great time with the Eberhardt Family! Annie of course flirted with Brandon's cousin Adam, Elias drank about 4 cups of punch in 15 min and he managed to stick his fingers in one of the cakes before they were cut...oops( Amber if you are reading this ,Sorry about that:) ) Other then that they did pretty dang good! Here are some pictures from their first wedding.

Cousins! Jordan, Amber and Brandon
Brandon and I..duh



Annie playing with the contents of the diaper bag under out table


Elias drinking his punch

Annie flirting with Cousin Adam, she was showing him her pretty cloth diaper and her belly button.

Annie cuddling with Uncle Jordan

Oh Annie...so the drinks came in dixi sized cups and Annie thought it was funny to suction them to her face...


Elias playing Angry Birds at the reception

When we first got to the reception, Annie climbed on Uncle Jordans lap and just starred at Great Uncle Keith for a good solid 10 minuets!

Time for a Haircut

It is a well known fact in our house that Annie has wild and crazy hair. She was born with no hair and when she finally started to grow some, it came in only on the top and in the back. We tried unsuccessfully for over a year to grow out her hair but we have given up. We decided to trim up her hair so it at least looked even, who knows maybe this will help it grow! She did very well for her 1st time sitting in the barber chair...I'm not so sure I did so great cutting a girls hair but anything has to be an improvemn from the hot mess it was before.

Lets Go Fly A Kite

Wow I am behind on my blog posts. I spent Mothers Day in the ER with another stomach bug. After 3 days of missery I decided to go in. 4 hours, 2 L of fluids and some medicine later I am feeling pretty good. So way back the end of April I had cheerleading tryouts. Brandon decided to take the kids across the street to the park to fly some kites. They seem to really enjoy it! It was VERY windy that day and one of the kites escaped. Brandon and Jordan sprinted after it but couldn't catch it, just when they were giving up a soccer player lightly trotted and caught the kite. Brandon says it was because he was closer but I am thinking it had to do more with the speed at which they were running but we will just let Brandon win that argument. Here are some pictures from their kite flying adventure.

Learning to Sew!

So I have always thought if I am going to be a SAHM(stay at home mom) that I better know how to sew! For Christmas/birthday last year my mom bought me a sewing machine!I started slow with fixing some of my cloth diapers that needed repair and making the kids little pillow cases then I decided to make a shirt for Annie. So for my first real project I picked a jersy knit shirt...for anyone who knows anything about sewing you are laughing now! It is not a very user friendly fabric. I cut the pattern with the stretch up and down instead of across, sewed the arm holes shut and didn't use a stretch stich on the neck so it wouldn't go over Annies head. It was SO FUNNY. So I threw away the shirt and every since have been doing pretty good. I have made Annie 2 dresses, Elias a giant weighted blanket ( to help him sleep, it works wonders with out little sensory issue boy) and a dress for me. I love to sew and have many more projects lined up. You can definitly see flaws in all my projects but hey I am still learning! I should also mention for my first few projects I bought super cheap fabrics and whatever was on sale so don't judge.



My first successful garment I made for Annie. Flaws: The hem is SUPER uneven, and the trim on the arm holes doesn't go into the neck properly, I'm pretty sure the neck is uneven too:)
My second dress I made for Annie, this one has much less flaws on the outside...just don't turn in inside out, the inside is kinda a hot mess but thats what I get for picking a fully lined skirt and bodice that requires massive amouts of gatering and has a tie back a 2nd project.Oh well, one messed garment at a time I will get there.