I think I have a biter!

So Madeline has sprouted two teeth in the last few weeks and she has put them to good use. At least it makes her giggle when they are being used! I tell you, being a nursing mom to a child with teeth - who likes to use those teeth = not comfortable! For the most part she is good and just eats, but every now and then.....say no more!
Today, after she as done eating, she crawled (her army crawl) over to me and bit my arm! I think I am really in for it with this one! She is so lovable though, and has started cuddling and showing affection to those around her. Today she also waved at one of my co-workers when she saw her!
Oh, this weekend marked 8 months since she was born too! Yikes!

Michael and Victoria started school again on September 8th and they both love it! I need to get some pictures moved to my computer in the basement, since that is the one I use now, so that I can post them for you guys!

I am back to my normal work schedule and love it! I enjoy seeing all my Y friends and families every day!

We're heading out to work out at the Y tonight, so I have to cut this short, but hopefully I will find time to catch you guys all up on what has been going on. Since I have a lot of cleaning to dfo, I am sure I will find many reasons to dork around on the computer instead:)

This summer

of 2009 has been going so fast! I will try to update a bit, but will mostly post pictures so that you can see all the fun we've done! Pictures will come later though as I am dead on my feet.

My last post was on our 10th anniversary. Kevin and I went out to eat and brought Maddypants with us. We ate at Victoria's (love that place!) while most of the people in Rochester were at the Rochesterfest Parade! It just happened so that our waitress was a lady who took my Norwegian class a few sessions ago. It was neat and she gave us a free chocolate dessert for our anniversary:) Thank you Nancy! We later went home and just hung out (remember, the older two kids were at Grandma and Grandpa's in Moorhead :).

The Thursday before July 4th we went up to Moorhead to meet up with the kiddos. They had a blast at Grandma and Grandpa's without us! They both aquired skateboards, and I tried one out - a story in itself!
We stayed until the Monday after July 4th before heading home and back to work life again. I got to practice taking pictures of fireworks on the 4th, and found that it is fun, but extremely difficult to get good ones without a tripod! So the moom (visible in most of the pics) has quite a few weird shapes in most of the pictures:)

On July 15th Maddypants got her first taste of "real" food when we stared feeding her rice cereal. Not quite sure what she thought of it, but she at it all:) At her check up earlier that day we found that she is in the 46th percentile for weight and 51st for height. Doctor is not worried as she is an active girl and she eats a lot. I guess she is just one of those lucky ones with a high metabolism:)

Between the 4th and now we have mostly worked, and hung out with friends. My mom flew in on July 24th and my dad is arriving tomorrow! Lots of pics taken and I am certain lots more will be taken over the next week while they are here!

Next weekend we'll head to Kevin's aunt's cabin for some caming with my parents and Kevin's parents. Then, when my mom and dad leave the Monday after we're planning on heading up to the North Shore for some camping. We've never been there before and have heard so many neat things about it!

Man, I bet there are so many things I am not remembering, so I will come back in a few days to add and edit:) For now it is off to bed for me. Maybe I will be asleep before midnight for once:)

Married 10 years today!

Today my lovely husband Kevin and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage!

Love you so much Kevin!

Din for alltid,
Hanne

Swimming

We went swimming last night at the Y and towards the end decided on letting Maddypants give it a try too. She loved it! She actually perked up as soon as I went through the showers with her. She was all giggling and laughing. It was so much fun! When I put her in the pool (zero depth entry pool) her legs just started going wild - up and down. I wish you all could have seen it. Of course, I did not have my camera with me, so her 2nd time swimming will be the first one documented:)
She was trying to drink the water (gross!) and was splashing along the whole time. We only gave her 15 minutes though before we left. Did not want to overdo it the first time:)
She fell asleep before we even got to the car!

Michael and Victoria are both in an all day camp at a church here in town this week. They are both very excited to get to go to a full day camp! In the mean time I sit at work playing computer (got hooked on mafia wars on facebook recently) or run the other kids around to different activities.

I am mentally preparing myself for "Bootcamp" at the Y on Thursday night. I am exited but also terrified! It is a boot camp style group fitness class. How great is that!
Well, better go, places to be with the kids! Have a wonderful day!

Last day of school - Summer Vacation!

The kids went to school today and are very excited it is the last day of school before summer vacation. I bet the majority of the day they will be doing fun stuff!
After Michael is done I am planning on picking him up and together with Victoria he'll party with water at the Y. They are having and end of the school year water party in Y-Space. I hope the weather stays nice so that they will get to play outside.

I personally do not feel like it is summer. The weather is borderline cold. I only have one week off this summer - and not a week I pick at that - so we have no big plans for any trips. Kinda makes me depressed. I am sure we'll have plenty of fun though, and I am certain the weather will be ungodly hot in no time, so I should not complain. In the meantime, I will play with my camera, cuddle with Madde and enjoy listening to the older two kids make plans for their play outside.

I guess another sad thing is that this is the time of the year when so many people I have met move away due to med school or residency training being done. I wish them all the best at their future location, but will miss them dearly.

Today I am going to take advantage of the last chance to go eat with Kevin sans kids. I was supposed to work at the Y but a wonderful co-worker picked up my shift. Yay! Thanks Torey!
Every lunch from now on will be with the kids - which is fine, but I do enjoy the lunches with Kevin too!

Ok, enough rambling. No picture for this post either. I better get moving and get some more pics taken!
Have a wonderful day all!

Hair Cut!

Victoria has her hair cut yesterday and she looks so cute! She is always cute, but she loves this haircut so much it makes her even cuter! And just in time for the last day of school too!

Here are the pictures - before and after:

Look how long it was!

After

Look how cute she is!

Kids Triathlon and an update

It has been forever since I have taken time to sit down to update this blog. I am sorry!
We've been very busy lately, but a good kind of busy.

Tomorrow morning both Michael and Victoria are participating in a kids' triathlon here in Rochester. They are so excited!
Victoria will swim 50 yards, bike 2.1 miles and run 1/4 mile, while Michael will swim 100 yards, bike 3 miles and run 1/2 mile.
Grandma and Grandpa Lucier will be in town to watch them too!

Last weekend we went up to Kevin's aunt's lake cabin to camp and help her fix the cabin a bit. We had nice weather and got some things done around the cabin.

May 17th we celebrated in Minneapolis at Mindekirken. They had a service in Norwegian and then a parade around the area. The two older kids and I wore bunads.
After the parade we changed in the car and went to Como Zoo to enjoy the rest of the wonderful day.

Michael and Victoria are excited to be done with school soon. Their last day of school is June 9th. They have both had wonderful teachers and made good friends. Hopefully we'll see most of them at some point over the summer.

Madeline is growing well and is certainly showing her personality. She is not doing anything the way her siblings did it, which is fine :)
I took her in for her 4 month check up and guess what! No ear infection!! I was so excited! She is allergic to amoxicillin though, so that is a bummer.

Kevin is still busy with work. He's been working late hours a lot, but thankfully has time to go play softball with the guys on the church league team on Tuesday nights.

I am also busy. Feel tired most of the time and wish I did not work two jobs, but oh well. The Y is very willing to work with my nanny schedule, so I won't have to work so hard in the summer. I am looking forward to when the Y job is the only one I am working! It is the greatest place I have ever worked at, and I have the best co-workers too.

I was hoping to get to go home to Norway this summer, but that won't happen. I only have 1 week off this year, over the summer, so it does not allow for much travel. I am crossing my fingers for a Christmas time trip home!

Here's some pictures to hold you all over:






Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!