Happy Halloween!

Our little dragon would like to wish you a very Happy Halloween!! While we didn't go out trick or treating, (after all who would eat the candy?!?) we did stop by Jen/Stacy's as well as Emily/Joe's...that was about as much as Brody could handle today. After we got two smiling pictures in the dragon costume, he refused to smile anymore while wearing it...it was almost comical as even Jason tickling him he wouldn't smile, but the minute we took off the costume...he was all smiles! Too funny really! Brody with Mr Pirate and the Plus Size Princess pumpkins.Jen & Stacy w/Brody. (Jen got Brody puffs for Halloween rather than candy, Thanks Auntie J)Stacy was raking the leaves when we arrived so we snapped several pics of Brody sitting in the pile, he was very interested in the leaves and wouldn't look up for a picture!This photo shoot was too funny. Colin is 4.5 months old and such a cutie...Brody looks like an monster next to him. Can't you think of a 1,000 captions for this picture. Brody is telling Colin...

"Dude at least you're not dressed like a green dragon"!

Primrose Pictures

Brody's school does a great job of taking pictures and sharing. It's always a nice surprise to get them...fun to see him enjoying his day with his new friends...as you can see it's most Brody with his "lady friend" Paige!

Family Pictures - Fall 2009

We had a beautiful fall day for our family pictures! We are very happy with how they turned out provided that getting Brody to look at the camera and smile at the same time is NO easy task!! Paula, our photographer does an incredible job...she took Brody's newborn, 4 month and now his 8month/family pictures! Thanks for the great work Paula!

God Bless Nana!

What would we do without Nana, always available at the drop of a hat! Mom had planned to come and help Jason out as I had several work trips planned in the coming weeks, after all the water issues surfaced, Mom called and said she would come earlier than planned to help out. WHAT A BLESSING!! Mom was here to help Jason maintain his sanity while I traveled the world, she prepared all the meals, helped coordinate all the contractors who where in and out, basically our project manager, helped with Brody and maintained a great attitude through it all...when Jason and I were at our wits end (which has happened several times since the water issue happened), Mom would remind us that what is most important is our health and family...which is always a great reminder that when things like this happen, it's not the end of the world!

Mom left today for a long 9 hour car ride...we are always very sad to see her go! I think Wayne and her little dogs missed her, so we can't keep her forever even though we'd love to!! Thanks again Mom/Nana for everything, we LOVE you!

Through The Eyes Of A Child

When Grandfather John (Jason's dad) saw the picture of Brody he sent me the lyrics from an old Patsy Cline song called, "Through The Eyes Of A Child", which I had never even heard. As I read the words, they couldn't be more true and very touching at that. It's too bad that in our adult life we can't live like this...Thanks Grandfather!

Welcome Baby Drew Steinemann

Today we went over to meet Todd, Erin and Big sister Hannah's newest addition, Baby Drew. The sweetest little newborn and so cute, I forget how tiny newborns are how they just sleep all the time. Brody was well entertained by Hannah, he's always in awe over big kids, watching their every move. Hannah would build a tower and then let Brody knock it over! Fun times! I can't wait until Brody and Drew are old enough to play together...

Congrats again to the Steinemann family!

Hannah, Erin and Drew (sorry to leave you out Todd!)Brody knocking over the tower.

Family Pictures

Last Sunday was a beautiful, sunny fall day...thankfully given we had our family photos taken outside! Paula Charchenko our wonderful photog (if you recall she took Brody's newborn and 4 month pics) met us at the park and snapped all sorts of great pictures. The thing we love about Paula is that she doesn't take your typical pictures and she thinks outside the box. Like when she opened up her SUV and inside was a crushed orange chair...she had Jason haul it down to the wooded area to use a prop. I would have never thought about that but love her thinking! I haven't had time to go through them all in detail but a quick review shows LOTS of cute pictures in an orange chair, so can't wait to have time to really look through them! Below is the "teaser" she put on her blog. Brody looks like a little boy and not a baby anymore...it's just crazy to think that he's almost 9 months! He did a pretty good job tolerating all the pictures, he was definitely over it by the end. I think next time we need a videographer on hand to tape the silly things parents will do to get their child to smile for the camera!

Happy 1st Birthday Landon!

Last weekend we went to Landon's first birthday party! The big guy was decked out in the cutest party hat and bib...and was super excited about all his guests but most excited about the yummy cupcake he devoured. Kids that age are too cute, he was loving the cake and running his fingers through the frosting and when finished rubbed his tired yes...with frosting of course...it was too cute! Big Brother Logan was on hand to open the presents and entertain the guests as well. It was a fun afternoon and of course Brody enjoyed seeing all his friends too!

Birthday Boy!!

JRo with her cute new hair-do and ICassie and Brody (chewing her hair, he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth)

Ward Family Snap Shot

Big Boy Brody!

London

In the midst of the flood renovation I had to go to London for work...bad timing for sure. We took my Target buyer and senior buyer to Avent's headquarters based in Southgate, a suburb of London. We stayed in a cute little boutique hotel in the heart of the city. In fact, a short 5 minute walk through the park took us to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abby. We had some time to tour the city, which was really fun. We took a double decker bus around the city and had a cute little English gentleman give us all sorts of history on the city, we even saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Of course we also found time for some "trend shopping" (that's what we call it in the biz)...shopping is incredible there but the exchange rate for the dollar made things very expense so we didn't buy much! I did manage to get to Harrod's, what a dream, if I had an endless supply of cash I could have spent days there!

Parliament and Big Ben I was so excited to see London Bridge, given I sing it to Brody...it's nothing more than a plain ol' bridge...lame!Buckingham PalaceAnn and I posing in front of Buckingham Palace.

Happy Gram

We love to get these Happy Gram's from school...a nice addition to our daily report! We are thankful that Brody enjoys Primrose and seems to have made some little friends. In the coming weeks he'll be moving to Infant B, with the more mobile babies, and of course his girlfriend Paige will be joining him, good thing as he'd be lost without her!

Great Flood of 2009

Well, Jason has said on many occasions, "go big or go home"...so I thought I'd live his life motto a couple of weeks ago...when I flooded our upstairs.....and our main floor...and why not hit the basement while you are at it!!!! Let me set up the scenario, got home late from work, kissed both my boys, ran upstairs to change and throw in a load of laundry and multitask like all mothers do. Brody had soiled a pair of pants, so i plugged the sink and turned on the water in the laundry room, remembered that I needed something in the bedroom I ran back in there, then back downstairs so that I could feed Brody dinner...during dinner clean up...it started raining...not outside as you would expect but inside...yep, through the chandelier in our dining room...and Jason yells, "water is coming through the ceiling"...and I knew that Jason's "Go big or go home" life motto was achieved...by me. Jason ran upstairs and the sink was on full blast, OBVIOUSLY, the floor was flooded out into the hallway. Oh boy did I make a huge mess...so to make this very long story short, we called a company who specialized in water, they were at our house in about 2 hours, ready for clean up. We knew that based on the amount of water, how long the water ran and the fact that it went all the way to the basement that we had major water issues that needed to be dried up ASAP to ensure no mold. So Immaculate Cleaning (for my MN friends, great company if ever needed) came to assess the situation, they had all sorts of fancy tools like an infra-red camera to detect water and several other devices, they ended up removing the ceiling in the dining room, the wall in the garage, all the baseboards in those areas as well as ripping up the carpet...the good news is that they showed us everything along the way so we could see the water inside the walls, ceiling, ect, so we knew that the steps they were taking were necessary to dry up everything.

So where are we at today?? Everything is dry...YAHOO, now the restoration begins. They have began putting the ceiling back in and the wall in the garage...from there, we'll need to have the new carpet put in and the everything painted...it will be the beginning of November before our house is back to "normal".

PS one thing that is important to note...my wonderful husband, not once made a comment about the mess or the expense but simply stated "accidents happen", for that I am thankful!! =)

Below are some pictures of the mess we have at home, which pictures don't do it justice...the estimate is some $55,000...not fun!!!

Scene of the crime...the utility sink.Fancy machine to dry out our house.

Late night work by Ben, checking for water in the wall.

Drying out the dining room

Dining room ceiling...removed...

Me posing in front of the plastic...

Fun at School!

Brody really enjoys school, or better yet since he's never told me...I think he likes it! Each day they send a report home and they always note how happy he was and how much he enjoyed "playing with his friends at school". Below are some pictures that Ms Shea sent to me last week...looks like fun to me! (Oh and how impressive that they were able to get all those little babies to pay attention for story time, i wonder how long that lasted!?!)