who says you can't swim in october?

All you need is a pool and a little imagination. . . . and boy did Bergen love our leaf pool! He kept asking me to add water so he could float the leaves and even though it was a BEAUTIFUL day, it wasn't *that* beautiful!! Annika, on the other hand, wasn't a fan. Our otherwise fearless princess has not liked all the dried up leaves around the yard. We have tried numerous times for her to join in the leaf pile jumping fun, but she just wants no part of it. I am sure she will be full force next year!

fall foto fun

halloween fun

We went to our community Halloween Carnival last weekend and had a great time. . . other then me still feeling sick! (UGH!) We see a lot of our neighborhood and preschool friends there and it is just a great way for the community to come out and be together! It reminds me of the old Congdon Park Elementary carnival that we went to growing up (was that for Halloween too? I can't remember!) - playing games, doing the cake walk, winning all those trinkets . . . such great memories! I hope our kids have the same great memories that I have from those fun nights!!

Here are some other fun costume pics from when we did the "photo shoot" for our Halloween card! Annika was not a fan of her costume at first, but bribing her with a little treat did the trick and cheered her up!

The first thing Bergen wanted to do was watch the Cars movie when he put his costume on. He was having such a blast dancing to the beginning title over and over and over again. . . I tried to tape him without him knowing, but got caught!

happy halloween!!!!!

the ghost post

We want to a say a HUGE THANK YOU to Aunt Marianne for making us these AWESOME GHOSTS for our yard! When we were over at the Kenfield house for dinner a few weeks ago the neighbor across the street had them in their yard and I commented on how much I liked them. . . so Marianne surprised me by making us some for our yard! We love them! Thank you!!

this one is going out to my husband

I am stealing another idea from Julie's blog. . . kind of like the newly wed game (although I guess we technically aren't newly weds anymore!). I hope I get a couple of these right. . . here goes:


1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
Almanac, ESPN or Poker

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
Caesar

3. What's one food he doesn't like?
Mushrooms. . . something we both don't like!

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order?
BEER

5. Where did he go to high school?
Minnehaha

6. What size shoe does he wear?
10.5


7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?
This is too easy. . . BOOKS

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Hmmmm. . . tuna melt? Only because I never let him eat tuna so it is a rarity if he gets one! Or I would say BLT!

9. What would he eat every day if he could?
Twizzlers

10. What is his favorite cereal?
Cinnamon Toast Crunch


11. What would he never wear?
Sweatpants


12. What is his favorite sports team?
Hmmmm. . . that is a tough one. I guess I would say any MN sports team. He has a soft spot in his heart for the Vikings, but they just always seem to let us down.

13. Who will he vote for?
Ahhhh. . . . not my secret to give away

14. Who is his best friend?
Again an easy one. . . ME!

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?
Leave wrappers around the house (I know, I know! I am working on it)

16. How many states has he lived in?
Two . . . Texas and Minne-sooooo-tah

17. What is his heritage?
I should know this, but I don't. I know Swedish for sure and then there is a lot of other stuff mixed in there!

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what would it be?
Not cake. . . French Silk Pie

19. Did he play sports in high school?
Soccer, Skiing and Baseball

20. What could he spend hours doing?
Reading. . . or sleeping

21. Does he belong to any men's organizations?
Nope. . . plenty of organizations, but not "men's"


So Lars, how did I do?

baby three update

We had an ultrasound last week and Baby Three is growing perfectly! S/he is still measuring a couple days ahead and the heart rate was 158 (which if we go by the old wives tale that would mean another girl!) S/he was also measuring about 5" long already!

After a pretty rough week for me last week, this week is off to a great start. My stomach seems to have settled down and my energy is starting to come back (finally!!). I believe week 13 starts the 2nd trimester so we are already 1/3 of the way there! Yikes!

popcorn time

Annika is officially walking! She has been taking steps for a few weeks now but last week she really started to walk the majority of the time. I tried to catch her on video and please excuse my taping as it gets a little bumpy. . . and chaotic!

Bergen and Annika enjoying one of their favorite new games together!

Great Grandma Sally and Grandpa Jack gave this little toy to Annika and she LOVES it. . . as you can see! And you will also see what dorks we are - both of us taping at the same time! What can I say? We love Kodak moments!

Bergen feeding the animals at the pumpkin patch. . . I *think* he is excited! ;)

We went to the Kenfields for a great birthday celebration for Drew and while we were there they pulled out Drew's old airplane for Bergen to take a spin in. It was so fun!!

a table for five please

We are excited to make it "blog official" that we are expecting Baby Leaf Three! Our due date is April 27, 2009 (how weird for us to NOT have a July baby!). As Lars says, "we move from man-to-man coverage to zone coverage". Life will certainly be different when we become outnumbered, but we couldn't be more thrilled!

We had our 10week OB apt last week and as usual the DR wasn't able to find the baby's heartbeat with the doppler (they couldn't find it that early with Bergen or Annika either). But with our history of loss and to calm our nerves they sent us over to do a quick scan to make sure the baby was doing okay. . . . and 30 minutes later we were happy to see our little one growing perfectly. The heart rate was 174 and the baby was even measuring a couple days ahead.

I am happy to be almost through the "horrible" first trimester. Overall I have been feeling tons better then how I felt when pregnant with both Bergen and Annika. As long as I keep eating my stomach seems to stay calm. As my wonderful friend Kate says, pregnancy is the only time in life when nausea actually goes away by eating. The one thing I have been struggling with is fatigue - I am tired all of the time! I am hoping some of that will lift come the second trimester.

More updates to come. . . we have an ultrasound next Monday so we will be able to see our little bean once again!

boston or bust

Lars and I took our first kid-free trip in 4 years! Well, we have done 2 weekends away from Bergen, but this was the first time we were away from *both* the kids. . . and a plane ride away! And all-in-all, it went GREAT!

Chris and Kate gave us the honor of asking us to be Nora's Godparents so we went out for her baptism the last weekend of September! We had a GREAT visit with the Melhus Clan despite it raining pretty much the entire time we were there. Lars and I loved having the freedom to read, watch a movie in the middle of the day and sleep in! I hope Chris and Kate didn't think we were too lazy, but man-oh-man if felt good to put the feet up for a few days!! Nana and Papa stayed with the kids at our house and they had a great time. Bergen and Annika kept them very busy for those 3 days!

Nora did beautifully at her baptism. She had fallen asleep in Chris' arms during the service, woke up when the Priest poured water on her head, looked a little confused, and then promptly fell back asleep. Afterwards Chris and Kate hosted a lunch at their house with Kate's family (or at least the family that lives in driving distance). We hadn't seen her family since their wedding so it was great to catch up with everyone (although Facebook does keep us connected on the time in between face-to-face visits!)

THANKS Chris and Kate for having us for a great weekend!

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Here we are waiting to be baptised. . . sorry it is a little dark:

Here is a little video of me trying to button a very upset Nora into her pajama's for the night. . . and Lars being very "helpful" by taking video:

you got to know when to hold 'em. . .

or know when to send 'em. . .

The subject of kindergarten has been on my mind A LOT lately. All 5 year olds as of September 1, 2009 are eligible to begin kindergarten next fall and Bergen will be turning 5 in July. Our choice is to either send him "on time" with the other 5 year olds or redshirt him for a year and send him at the age of 6. So, to send or not to send? This has been my question for the past 6+ months and continues to rule my mind as I don't have a finalized answer yet.

I have asked everyone and their brother who has had to make this decision how they decided. I have heard research to support either decision. I have heard this, I have heard that, I have heard it ALL . . . . and at the end of the day we just need to decide what we think is right for Bergen and our family.

And what I actually think is that it is right is to redshirt him. But for some reason I just can't commit to that decision. I wish I could just stand up, throw my fists in the air and say "we are holding off on kindergarten!!" but I can't fully embrace that idea and I am trying to figure out why.

Well, truth be told I think I know why. It will be really hard for me to see all of Bergen's friends go on to kindergarten. . . . and my friends go on as well. We have been in classes with many of these parents and kids for 3 years and to think of them all moving on while we wait another year is difficult. We have made some GREAT friends and I hate to think of us going our separate ways. I, however, at the same time recognize I can't base his entire academic career on his preschool friends (as much as I love them!) and that he will gain new friends just as fast as he made his preschool friends. And for me, I will also make new "mom friends" in time and will also hope to remain friends with those moms whose kids do start kindergarten next fall. . .

Lars is ready to commit to this decision, but I am just not there yet. It isn't that I don't think he is ready for kindergarten - because we both think he is ready for it. We are trying to project into the future thinking of those oh-so lovely puberty years and even thinking of him graduating high school at 17 vs. 18. That is a HUGE difference.

The ONE thing that might make us consider kindergarten next year is if we were to open enroll him into the school district that we are hoping to get him in to. We live in a great school district, but our home is within WALKING distance from the elementary school in another great district. When we moved in, we were told it was no big deal to open enroll, but have since learned it is very hard to get into the adjacent (and walking distance) school district. So, one thought is to try and open enroll him and if he gets in, he will go. If he doesn't, we will hold him back a year. But again, I just don't know if he should go next year and don't necessarily want to put us in a situation making a wrong decision if we were to get into the district.

Okay, that was a lot of rambling and I apologize. I will close with one more thought. . . . After talking with what feels like hundreds of people about this decision there is one piece of advice I heard that continues to play over and over in my mind: rarely does anyone ever regret holding back, but you hear of people regretting their decision to send. And we all know life is too short for regrets.