Time Change

Wow, it seems like time really flies faster here in Minnesota. Not sure why that is, I don't think the girls and I are busier than we were in California. The girls have really gotten acclimated to Gramma and B-Pa's house (Ella has tried saying "Grandpa" but has decided she likes "B-Pa" better. So my dad is now known as B-Pa). We have done some fun things the last couple weeks. We visited the Mall of America one day just to kill some time. Ella loved seeing the Rain Forest Cafe store, playing around in Pottery Barn Kids, and a really nice Disney Store.

We also visited Emma Krumbee's Farm where we saw a bunch of scarecrows and picked out pumpkins. It was a little more commercialized than we had hoped it would be. You had to pay $1 to play each kiddie game! But Emma sure does make a mean apple pie! We picked one up from the bakery on our way out.

Andrew's parents came to visit this weekend. We had a really nice visit and they said the drive (about 6 hours) wasn't so bad. We mostly just hung out with them and the girls. But we did go look at the two houses we had narrowed down in our search. It was fun to show them to everyone. We may have more house news in the near future, but I don't want to jinx anything just yet.

Hope everyone has a fun Halloween tomorrow! We'll be trick or treating with the girls. I'll post pictures as soon as I can! In the meantime, there are new Shutterfly pictures up for September and half of October!

It's beginning to look alot like.....hey, wait a minute!

Yes, it looked like Christmas around here for about 24 hours. It SNOWED on Oct. 11th! Okay, I knew it would be cold here, and I knew there would be snow. But on Oct. 11th! Not fair! I didn't even have winter coats for the girls yet. Here are a bunch of pictures of Ella discovering the snow falling. She has seen it and played in it before, but hadn't experienced it while it was falling. She was very intrigued. She would watch it out the window, and when it would stop, she would ask, "Hey, where'd it go?". When it would start up again, she'd say, "Oh, there it is!"











We also decorated the front of the house for Halloween. Gramma Clare bought some decorations at the store and said, "Go crazy." So here's a picture of it. There are also some ghosts hanging from the trees. Ella helped me stuff the pumpkin bags and the bags for the pumpkin man. She loves looking out the front door every night to discover the lights have been turned on. Just wait until Christmas this year! :-)


The last two pictures are of the girls being cozy inside one morning right after they woke up and Lily reading her new book called "Prancing Dancing Lily". Both she and Ella really LOVE this new book and others they received from a friend. ;-)

This week hasn't been too exciting yet. Ella is getting over a cold and I believe Lily is just getting it. The weather has been cold and rainy so no playing outside. We spent an hour and half killing time at the bookstore today. We are hoping to visit the pumpkin patch (check it out here) and some see some scarecrows on Saturday. And Andrew and I will be house hunting on Sunday. Yippee! Speaking of houses, we received an incredibly lowball, insanely lowball offer on our condo. We're countering but I'm not holding my breath that anything will come of it. But cross your fingers just in case! Coming soon: more Shutterfly pictures!

Election humor for you

I will update for real soon. However, please check out this link when you have a free moment. Andrew's brother, Benjamin and his wife, Jenelle received a political message on their answering machine. The funny part is what was said after the caller thought she had hung up. Listen to the clip here.

Just an update

I'm having technical difficulties with Shutterfly right now. I got a new laptop so I could take advantage of my dad's wireless network. And well, the shutterfly plugin that allows me to add tons of pictures at once is not suitable for the laptop's processor. They haven't created a plugin that works with it yet. :-( So unfortunately I can't upload our latest pictures. Andrew will be bringing our old computer with him when he arrives in MN next weekend so hopefully I'll be able to get new pictures up then.

We had a very fun time at Claire's wedding. Ella & Lily stopped by the reception for a little while and were pretty well behaved. My mom got her perfect Christmas card picture (which is why we are so coordinated!) and so did we. We figured why not, since we were all dressed up anyway. I've known Claire since sixth grade as well as Erin and Allison (also in the this picture). Allison was a bridesmaid and Erin and I were greeters and handed out programs at the church. Claire and her new husband Jeff really had a nice wedding and are perfect for each other! Congratulations Claire & Jeff! We hope we get to hang out with them more often now that we are in MN.

We had a nice first week here. We tried out some new parks, the Barnes and Noble storytime, and of course Target. We've also taken advantage of all the walking paths around here! Although we did lose Bear (Lily's lovey) on one of the walks and I panicked for a few minutes. But whew, we found him, thankfully. We played in the leaves with Grandpa on Saturday. And one of Lily's favorite pasttimes these days is playing in the kitty bed. She LOVES it! I'm thinking may need to buy her own. Poor Gracie the cat hasn't slept in there since we arrived!

Up next week, decorating the front yard for Halloween, Toddler Tuesday at the Mall of America, a visit to Great-Grandma Betty's, and more random fun! And best of all the return of Andrew next weekend! Yeah!

The look of fall

My favorite time of the year is Labor Day until New Year's.
And I have to admit, it's even better now that we're back in
Minnesota. A REAL fall!! Yippee! The changing color of the
trees, the falling of the leaves, the rain pouring down. Here
are some fun pictures of fall in my dad's neighborhood and
the girls playing in leaves for the first time!