Lake Minnetonka Regional Park

If you couldn't tell....it was a great day!

The Joker

Landon: "Hey Noah, Noah Why did the cow cross the road?"

Noah: Sticks tongue out, spits and crawls away

Landon: "No, to get to the other side!"

9 Months

Height: 281/2 inches
Weight: 17.8 lbs.
Top Teeth: 3
Bottom Teeth: 2
Sitting: Yes
Crawling: Yes
Pulling Up: Yes
Babbling: Yes
Sleeping Through the Night: YES!!!!



I am one happy momma!

That's What I Get For Eavesdropping

A few days ago, I was in a really fowl mood. I know that's hard for some of you to believe, but trust me it happens. It was late in the evening, I had just given the kids dinner, and pretty much was grumpy the whole time. I don't even remember what I was frustrated about, but I was taking it out on the kids. In the midst of all this, Mike called to say he was on his way home. I was glad because I was feeling really tired and needed the help putting the kids to bed. I also think I was getting sick. Anyway Mike got home, but then ended up getting a page that he had to respond to, so I took the kids in and helped them brush their teeth etc. Usually one of us goes up with them, reads a few books, helps them say prayers and tucks them in. I was feeling too grumpy and sick and Mike was still on the phone, so I told them to just go up, say prayers, get into bed and I would be up in a minute. I layed down on the couch and listened. Abbie said her prayer and got into bed and Landon immediately started calling down because I had "forgotten" to help him say his. He was getting pretty upset and I heard Abbie say "I'll help you Landon." I didn't think he would let her because he usually only wants me to help him do stuff, but he tearfully said "Ok Abbie." I walked to the bottom of the stairs to listen thinking I would hear something pretty funny. This is what I heard " Please bless that Mommy won't be grumpy tomorrow..." Yea, not so funny. Mike thought it was hilarious though. I offically award myself the 'Worst Mom of the Year Award'

Nine Years.....Holy Crap!

Happy Anniversary Mike! I'd like to say that each year keeps getting better and better, but we have three small (and somewhat crazy) kids, two years left in residency and lots of student loans and you know what.....





I wouldn't change it for anything! Thanks for working so hard for us. I love you so much!!!

Love,
Erin

Sorry Mike........

.......but I'm in love with another man.

Happy Birthday America, oh yeah...and Mike!

Mike always chooses to celebrate his birthday by shooting off illegal fireworks. (roman candle)


Bottle rockets.....

....and this is what the kids thought of them.

These kids (and I) sure love their daddy. Mike was able to be home with us all day on his B-day.

This was Landons first time holding a sparkler. He liked it, but kept saying that it was "spitting on me." This is such a classic Landon face!

Abbie and her friend Olivia at the fireworks later that night.

Landon and his friend Sage. I asked him once if Sage is his girlfriend and he said "No, Abbie is."

We really had such a good 4th this year. I was beyond happy that Mike didn't get called in, and we were able to have a lot of fun with friends and just being together with the kids. I love this country, and I love my family! Hope everyone else had a great 4th too!

New Bike, Old Bike

There's really nothing GREAT about being the second child. You never get anything new and if the hand-me-down is gender specific, you have to use it anyway. Mike thought making Landon ride Abbie's Princess bike was taking it a little too far, so on Saturday when we finally bought Abbie a new bike, he went right to the Hardware store and bought spray paint. The end result........not too bad and the boy looks happy right?











Now, if he can only learn to ride it!

Lake Powell and Utah visit

Peyton, Cayden, Zach, Brandon, Savannah and Abbie. In my mind these kids are all still babies. It was really weird (but so fun) to see them all so grown up.

Abbie and her cousin Brady at Chuck E Cheese.

Me and the kids behind the boat at Lake Powell. Abbie was not thrilled, but Landon kept yelling "faster!"

This was probably Landon's favorite thing to do at the lake......throw rocks in the water. That and look for lizards.

So, we've got this huge Lake to swim in, and where do Abs and Landon want to swim? The tiny pool Sandra brought for Noah. They seriously stayed in there for an hour.

They eventually did get in though, and they loved it!!!

My Lake Powell Girl!

More pics to come. I have to wait for Papa to send me the DVD's with all 1,400 pictures on them. Yeah, he's picture crazy!

I Love you too Aunt Jenny!!!

Alright Grandmas, Here it is.....The Easter Post

Dying Easter eggs.

Just because it's funny!! (and so cute)

Abbie on the prowl.

Note: (look how warm it was here.....Abbie is in flip flops. Disregard the jacket and look only at the shoes)

I think Landon was still a little tired. He looked for this egg for a long time.

Hope everyone had a GREAT Easter. I know we did!!! We love you all.

The "F" Word

So, Abbie came home from school last week and said "Mom, Heidi from my bus said the F word to me." Heart stopped, palms sweaty, freaking out. She's only in Kindergarten for cryin out loud!! "What did she say?" I asked, not really wanting to hear the answer to this. "She said Old Macdonald had a Farm, fart, fart, fart." Ok, I can live with that F word. For the record (mom), we did have a talk about it not being a nice word and not to use it.

Bloggers Beware!

Mike is logging on to the Blogging world lately and posting comments on people's Blogs. Watch out for his devious, not-funny comments. Just because it says "Mike and Erin Hale", does NOT mean I (Erin) left the comment. He's very sneaky. I'm thinking about changing my password.

Erin

Disney On Ice

Since Abbie got to go to The Nutcracker with me in December, I thought I would take Landon on a date too. What's better than Disney on Ice for a three year old? And let me tell you, Disney is not doing too bad in these hard economic times....$16.00-$40.00 per ticket (x about 6,000 people), $10 for cotton candy, $6 for popcorn, $4.25 for a 16oz. soda, $24 for a light-up sword, etc. I was appalled at how much these things cost, but even more appalled at the amount of some of these items parents were buying for their kids. Most of the people I saw had to have dropped several hundred dollars on toys and treats. I'm glad that there are plenty of people who still have jobs and can afford these things for their children, but Landon had just as much fun with convenient store candy and a bottle of water that I snuck in. I love my little man!

For Grandma Hale

Thanks for the V-Day package Grandma! We read our books everynight, the gum was gone pretty much the first day and the monkey is sufficiantly soaked with drool. You know just what makes us happy! We love you!!!

Abbie, Landon and Noah

Favorite pictures

Abbie and Landon love to take pictures with my camera. It's like the greatest thing ever if I let them.....which I don't very often. This is why:

Landon's photography skills

Abbie's photography skills. Now, let me say that the camera is obviously digital, so I can easily delete them, but when I'm having to delete 50 pictures of the floor or closeups of Abbie's face, it gets pretty time consuming. They are pretty funny though!

I think it's obvious why I love this picture

This is what happens when I leave Landon alone in a room with the baby

Who? Me? I would never do such a thing.......oh people, don't be fooled

It's all going too fast....

So, when Noah was first born, I did the typical Mom thing and started wishing he would get big really fast....mostly so that he would sleep better at night. Well, now I'm regretting that because he is getting so big and I feel like I missed it. He will be three months old on Saturday. (I took these pictures the other day). Ok, I'm ready for it to start slowing down now.

Abbie turns 6!

At the risk of feeling like a horrible mother I will blog about my daughters birthday two weeks late. Since Abs had a party last year, I told her that this year we would not be having a party, but that she could do whatever she wanted to that day. My hopes in doing this, were to be spending less money. Leave it up to MY daughter to choose Mall of America. The wristbands for the rides there are $30 a piece, thus no money saved...in fact more money spent. Luckily Papa was in town. Thank you Brent for everything! We had a really fun night at the mall riding rides, having a birthday dinner at Tony Romas, and laughing our heads off. I was glad I finally got to go on the rides. I was pregnant the last two times we went there. Sandra was nice enough to stay with Noah while we all went on the rides. I know it was a HUGE sacrifice for her! Yeah right. We came home and sang happy birthday to Abs and let her open her presents. (We didn't leave the mall until 11:30 that night. My kids got to see the ball drop....it was awesome!) It was a great day. We love you Abbie!