Summer 2011

Wow the summer sure is flying by!  Our kids absolutely love to be outside, even Stella at 13 months old, stands by the door (with some shoes's on- she wears everyones (even mine) and cries at the door!  The second you go outside, she is happy.  Henry was always like that too.  I'm glad my kids are outdoor kids (for now) granted Henry loves watching movies and cartoons, but since they don't have any tv time at school, I don't feel so bad when he's glued to the tv for half hour or hour at home once in a while.  The kids play outside very well, though Stella has recently become fond of breaking our rule of no going on the road!  And now that she walks and runs- it's constant bringing her back to the garage area!  She loves to play on anything Henry has... Henry has such an imagination and cognitive thinking-- the other day he figured he could pull Stella in the sled if he tied a rope to a wagon, then tied the wagon to his bike... sure enough it worked and she loves it!!  By the end had like 5 things tied together to pull Stella... it was sort of funny pulling a sled in summer- but whatever works! 

Brendon just got home from a 5 day trip the boundary waters with a few buddies- they had a good time except for the portage in where they dumped canoes and everything got wet and had to swim rather than paddle because of the 40 mph winds!  WOW- but they survived and then had fun.  I was on kid duty for the whole time, my mom works in Northfield so she helped out each day with either a pick up or a drop off Wed-Friday which helped a lot!  Other than that, I was on my own and we did good.  Trip to the library, several trips to the parks, lots of play time, and fun times with just kids and mom!  We actually did great but I was glad Brendon was coming home - ready for a little help.  : )

Henry is a stinker lately, when he is tired there is no reasoning with him, but is there ever with a 3 year old?!  He has his mind set and will do whatever even as your are telling him no!  Just a phase I hope.  He's still a sweet sensitive kid though and asks a million questions- everything is "why mom?" after a few answers and him still asking why, sometimes I go "that's a great question Henry, I wonder why" or "I'm not sure honey, go ask your dad". HA!  : )  But when you ask him "honey, why do you ask so many questions" his response is "because I like to learn things"  awww, how can I not answer questions after that response... patience mommy, patience!

My garden is growing and producing like mad... it's a small garden but seems just right for us!  I get a quart size bag of green beans like ever 2-3 days, I have 2 nice rows of carrots, several tomatoes plants and 2 with cherry size ones that grow like crazy, about 4 heads of purple cabbage that we haven't picked yet, a bunch of green bell peppers, 4 plants with like 20 jalapeno peppers, and 4 plants with banana peppers.  The onions are sort of small this year, but they are still good!   Up in the field we also have zucchini which every 3 days we get 2 or 3 of them, wow, and the squash is looking good I think there are at least 10 of them growing now and a few more little ones starting- I'm not sure if the pumpkins are coming in or not- I think I saw 2 starting.  I also planted 9 sweet potato plants, so we'll see if those work.  I didn't mound them like you are supposed to, but rather just stuck them in the ground, so we'll see.   I learn a little each year - I do know the ground in my garden is so hard, I definitely need to get some potting soil worked in there and some fertilizer before planting next year... I do a little each year by putting compost in and some soil and a good tilling, but it needs more. 

Little miss Stella is walking around and talking up a storm.  She surely knows what she wants when she wants... she has a lot of drama and loves to throw little tantrums that I try to ignore!  She has a major shoe obsession- she wants to wear Henry's shoes as much as possible, but gets so mad when she can't walk in them or they fall off, and brings me her shoes and says "AAAHH" like put these on mom!  It's really too funny- such a little girl!  She smiles and laughs at everything and wants to do everything Henry does!   She's a good eater most of the time too- loves to throw food around though!  I'm still fortunate enough to be nursing a little bit- mostly just morning and nights and maybe once during the day.  I feel the supply diminishing, so I know it will be coming to an end soon...  it's strange how sort of emotional nursing and stopping nursing can be.  Luckily (knock on wood) she hasn't had an ear infection in about 1.5 months- I swear it's a record for her!  We did talk to her pediatrician and she recommended an ENT in Faribault that she said we should see if she gets another one soon.  She said he likes to try some alternative stuff before jumping right to tubes like allergy medicine among other things..I also want to try some chiropractor work and see if that will help.  I met a new neighbor the other day (well not new- but we've never met and actually they are selling their house) but anyway, she is a chiropractor and we talked about it for infants and she is all for it!  She said she's been working on her daughter since birth and her daughter loves it too!  What a lucky daughter-- man adjustments for life!! : )   She's healthy and weighs about 21 lbs now!  Henry weighs 34lbs I think... kids just keep growing! 

I've recently started school again-- I took 2 semesters off after I had Stella, so it's a big adjustment for me to go back to class.  I go one night a week and am trying to test out of 2 other classes this semester and then I will just have one left starting in January- then FINALLY graduate with my bachelors degree... ugh- I do truly HATE school!  My work is crazy too- with our business downsizing and so many people leaving, the work just trickles down, my boss of 11 years is retiring this week (well- she is going to work some where else while retiring from 3M) so her work is coming to me along with a  position that was eliminated 3 years ago came too me, so my days are FULL!  But, I am trying to make the best of it.

All for now- enjoy the last few days of the summer and bring on beautiful fall!

Happy Happy First Birthday Stella!

Stella had her first birthday this past Saturday!  I cannot believe she is 1!  We ask her if she's one and she sticks one finger out- it's too cute!  She's still walking about the same amount, several steps here and there, but still crawls a lot. 

We had a wonderful birthday party for Stella on her big day with all her family surrounding her! Even 4 great grandparents!  What a lucky girl!.

In typical "girl" fashion, 90% of her gifts were clothes- they were all soo cute!  She also got a little bit of money and two books (one called Stella is a Star), a noisey driver, and a princess chair!  She is a very spoiled girl.

Stella is still battling ear infections.. we've had her in the Dr a lot lately.  I knew something was up so brought her in right away and we caught the infection early, so they gave her the regular medicine, but I knew it wasn't better, so after a few days we took her back in and it turned into a double ear infection- UGH!  Poor Girl! So back on the strong meds.... I STILL wasn't convinced a few days later that it was gone, so in again she went, and the DR said the left ear is healed up and the right ear is still infected but looking a lot better!  She sleeps so much better when her ears are not infected, typically she'll only get up once a night when she is healthy.  I do still nurse her, so I end up nursing her once in the middle of the night and she falls right back alseep within 5-10 minutes.  It's not so bad.  I'm thinking about taking her to see a chiropractor after this round heals up-- I've heard some good things about kids not getting so many ear infections afterwards... I figure it's worth a try- anything we can do to prevent a surgery is good in my book!  But I know the tubes discussion is coming soon with her pedictrian... not something I want to do, but if she needs it done then we'll for sure do it.  I'm just not sure I could handle my baby going "under"... even though I know it's soo common and done a millions times-- just hard to see your baby like that I think.

I'm really thankful to still be able to nurse, with Henry I made it 11 months, and with Stella I am starting to wean a bit by putting an once or two of whole milk in with the breast milk in each bottle.  So I only pump once a day at work now, and then stil nurse in the morning at night.  We'll see as her ears heal and if we can keep them healed, then I will wean down more.  Nursing is a big comfort for Stella and for most babies I think, so as long as she's battling those ears, I feel the comfort of nursing is the least I can do to help my girls pain...

Stella says momma and dadda a lot now but hasn't mastered too many other words, though she does do some sign language and her dramatic reactions speak louder than words sometimes!  The other night after dinner it was time for a bath, Stella was still eating so I was with her and Brendon and Henry ran upstairs to get the bath going, and Stella looked at me with this look of "are you kidding me, let me go up there too!" it was the funniest thing- she immediately did her sign language for "all done"!

Henry and Stella still love each other like crazy- which I love.  Sometimes of course Henry is a little rough with her, but he quickly goes "sorry Stella" and kisses her anytime he accidentally hurts her.

Henry is a crazy boy and still loves playing outside as much as possible and loves being with the neighbor kids.  We seriously have 2-5 extra kids at our house almost every day!  Many times they are good and stay outside but now and then the inside is a mad house too.  The neighbor kids range in age 6-11 that come over, it's nice these older kids like to play with our kids so much being 1 and 3.  Great babysitters in the making!

Henry has been having a lot of fun this summer at preschool.  Last week one parent brought 3 pony's in and they all had to bring their bike helmets and got a quick ride!  The other day a fireman visited to talk to them, and they got to walk over to the John Deere implement and today I think they have a giant bounce house there.  It really is a great place!

Here is Stella's cake I made... I tried, I'm not real creative, but it was cute! I giant cupcake! : )

 YUMMO!

 Going after the balloons that daddy got her!

 Happy first birthday pumpkin!

 AHHHH remember 1 year ago!!  Little Stella Mary Pagel was born, 1:23pm, 6lbs 10oz

 Oh so tiny!

 When we finally got to meet each other!

 OK- here is Henry golfing with Brendon at the driving range the other day- he LOVES golfing with his daddy, and I'm pretty sure Brendon loves it too!

 They love each other!

 Henry always carry's her and says "she's getting pretty heavy mom"

 This was a while ago, found it on my camera and though it was funny... shortly after I lifted her up and there was "poo" on the carpet-- not on her diaper or dress... just the carpet- crazy!

 Learning to walk

 Sleep is good...

All for now : )

Stella is walking and turning 1

Our sweet sweet little baby girl will no longer be a baby after this weekend.... well, she'll always be my baby girl!  She turns 1 this Saturday!  WOW- a 1 year old! Her first birthday ever, she's had so many "firsts" this year what a way to celebrate an amazing life created by a one year party!  Her most important "first" birthday we'll be celebrating with family for a little BBQ- just a low key event with Stella's favorite people surrouding her!  Hopefully the weather is decent so we can be outside a bit, otherwise since it will be mostly adults at the party- I think we'll opt to stay in the AC!  I'm having her 1 year pics taken next week out at my parents farm with a new photographer- I'm super anxious to see how they go!  I use a lot of different photographers, I guess I like the variety of different styles.

Anyway- the newest "first" is Stella is walking!  Oh my little girl is growing so fast.  Henry was also walking right at 11 months, it's kind of funny to see them doing things at the same pace.  She's doing 6-7 steps at a time and Henry loves to 'catch' her (as he says).  She giggles the whole time and loves the applause she always gets after the big accomplishment, then wants to do it again, and again, and again, and again and sometimes gets mad when it's time to stop.

We've been having lots of fun outside lately with swimming at my grandma Gergen's pool, my sister Beth's pool, and our slip n slide/baby pool/sprinkler in our own yard!  We tend to attract a few neighbor kids (like 5 or 6 of them) anytime we're outside playing.  So the kids are always pretty entertained!

The most fun part of July was the welcoming of my new niece Macy Sunquist!  She's just a beautful perfect little girl!  I forget how little they are and how BIG Stella seemed after holding Macy!

 I had to put these two side by side... me and my sister with our daughters at birth!  Gee- can you tell we're sisters!  : )

See what I mean by how BIG Stella looks by these two sweeties!  My niece Macy in the yellow at about 1 week old, and my cousin Cyndie's daughter Kyra in the sleeper at about 2 weeks old.  Stella kept looking back and forth at the them like what the heck are these!  They almost look like her dollies!

 With all the hard playing lately- this was how Henry fell alseep in the car one day-- funny faces!

 Stella's cute bikini butt!

 This is where Henry decided was a good place to eat his bedtime snack : )

 Yes Stella.. you are SOOO big honey!  I love you to pieces!

 Henry made me a beautiful bracelet at school- I love it and I'm sure macaroni jewelry is making a comeback too! : )



We were organic before organic was cool

Ha- I like to think my mom was organic before organic was cool, because that's just what you do.  You grow your food and you eat it!  YUM.  It's my 3rd year of my own little garden.. little yes, but fun.  My best thing this year is for the first time I grew my own lettuce and it's great!  We've been using it on sandwiches and last night made a good salad with it.  We have plenty, so we're hoping to eat lots of it.  My green beans have just started to blossom, so those will be coming soon!  Both my kids devour green beans, especially Stella!  The red cabbage I planted is looking amazing, the tomatoes plants are starting to blossom, but they are really small-- they are planted in a really wet part of the garden (where our sump pump drains kind of) and I don't think it's very good for them.. but we'll see!  The peppers are starting to grow and the onions too!  The carrot's are looking good- a bit sporatic, but I think I'll get at least 20 or so. I did a row of pea's but not sure they are taking off very well, but we'll be getting pea's from some farmers to freeze here soon.  I got a few radishes and I think that was about it.  Then up in the field by our house that my dad has, I planted 3 kinds of squash, pumpkins, zucchini, and some sweet potatoes.  Then my dad planted a few rows of sweet corn and another row of beans.  Between my two gardens, both my sisters gardens and my mom's garden, we should have some great food to can and freeze this year!  So as above, I think we were organic before organic was cool!  My green thumb is no where near my mom's, or my ambition, but it's slowly getting there!  My sister Beth also picked me a nice big bucket of strawberries so I actually made my own jam for the first time and I notice the raspberries in the field are getting close to being ready too, I'm hoping to do a few jars of raspberry jam too!

So last week I had to to New Orleans for our work.  It was the best show we've ever put on, we launched this great new product and in my 11 years of doing trade shows, I've never seen anything like it!  The booth traffic was amazing, we gave a Nook eReader away every hour in the booth for people that watched our presentation- that was a great draw! I also planned a reception that was also a big hit.  SO much work, SO hard to leave the kiddo's, especially Stella.  That was the first time I've ever really left her for more than 10 hours or so.  It was a pain lugging the breast pump there and hauling home all the milk (though I did pump and dump twice : ) but worth it for my girl!  Love being able to give her the good stuff!

Brendon has his hands full while I was gone, but they kept busy and they all did fine!  I did get sick when I got home for 24 hours, had a high fever but the next day I felt better.

The kids are doing awesome.  Stella stands by herself now and puts her arms in the air and smiles this amazing smile like "look at me everyone-  I can stand"!  I try to get her to come to me then, but her feet stay planted!  She has taken like 1 or 1 1/2 steps but not walking yet.  She loves going up the stairs and climbing on everything. She's such a great little girl, I love her to pieces!   Henry is such a boy... all he wants to do the minute he gets home is play outside with the neighbors!  We have some great neighbor kids, the twin girls next door and their brother Sam love Henry and Stella and then Henry has also started playing with the 2 boys across the street too- so most evenings if you drive by our house, there are likely 6 or more kids playing in our yard- I love that!  Henry hates coming in to eat dinner, and is usually "too busy" to take a bath he says. 

My sister Beth was due to have a baby last Saturday, I'm glad she didn't have the baby while I was gone!  Henry asked when her baby will come out and I said maybe tomorrow, and he said "No, I think Thursday", so let's see if he's right!  The gender is TBD, but I think most people are guessing boy, but I think we could use a playmate for Stella! : )

Here are some pics!

Stella at the library



This picture cracks me up- it's the Pagel cousins on Mothers Day- Landon was mad, Henry was mad because Landon was mad and Cooper was just fed up I guess!  They'll love this one when they are older!




My girl!




Love the sit and spin thing



Extra green beans growing in the field that dad planted- they are much bigger now.  This was a week ago




Stella just cruisin around the living room




My dad and Henry plowing up the field getting ready to plan sweet corn



Stella loves to sit on Henry's old potty chair!



The golf cart I got last year at a garage sale for $15!  Thank you Jamie Lindell for fixing it for us!




Brady got up in the morning and laid on Brendon to watch cartoons, then Henry woke up and had to copy Brady!  Classic boys!




Stella loves the remote- thought this was funny, she couldn't find it for a minute!



Henry and Stella love to sit by each other on the weekend mornings and even hold hands and share some cheerios! : )



Love her big blue eyes!

April May and almost June

So April has gone by, May is almost over and bring on June!   May we celebrated Mothers day with TOO much running around... one day I envision Mothers Day to be me getting waited on while watching soaps all day in bed! HA.. we'll see if that ever happens! : )  Brendon went on a 5 day fishing trip way up north with his buddies.  Me and the kids had fun, but we missed daddy.  Friday night I went out and my mom and dad took the kids, I knew I'd be back fairly early- by 10-11ish, so I just stayed over night at their house... I think in the 15 or years I've been moved out of their house, I've only slept over twice.  Henry slept with my mom and dad and I slept in the room with Stella to take care of her in the middle of the night.   Other than that, we kept busy going to the library, grocery shopping and just playing!  The kids were very good while Brendon was gone : )  Then we had my birthday and now this week is Brendon's birthday so he can no longer say he's married to an older woman!  (I'm 9 days older than he is)  Then the next week we'll celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary-- in a good way, it seems we've been married a lot longer than that! 

The kids are good- Henry says the funniest things.  The other night I was telling him about the tornadoes all over the news and he goes "why are the potatoes dangerous"..  The other night he also said to me "mom I want paint on my toes" and I told him only girls get pain on their toes, then he said "well then I wish I was a girl"!!  EEEK!  : ) 

The garden is planted-- hopefully the seeds all survived all this rain.  Brendon tilled it up a couple weeks ago with my mothers day present (a garden tiller!! ) and I've been planting it ever since... it's a small garden, but just right for us, for now.  I planted green beans, carrots, radishes, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, peppers and onions and I think that is it... a little of a lot of things!  Hopefully this week I'll be able to get up into my dad's field (just up the road from us) and plant the squash, pumpkins and maybe try a few rows of sweet corn-- last year the damn gophers ate the sweet corn seeds...

Henry had Strep last week with a bad rash, then this past Sunday Stella had just an ever so slight rash, so we took her into after hour care in Hastings and the rapid strep was negative, but the Dr said the rash was a strep rash and she had a double ear infection and the Dr also said Strep in little ones tend to go into their ears.. she said we likely caught it very early which is probably why the rapid strep was neg..  so both kids are on meds but both doing better... Stella is a bit fussy at bedtime and last night she just would not go to bed for the life of her... so after 2.5 hours, I finally put her in the car and drove around the neighborhood a few times and she fell asleep and I was able to bring her in asleep.... while I was circling the roads at a slow pace at 9pm, there was a lady our running... I think she was maybe freaked out by me since I passed her about 5 times - she probably thought I was a robber or something!  Next time I should hang a sign on my car that says "just trying to get the baby to sleep"  : ) 

Stella also moved into the big car seats this weekend!  EEEK!  Sad for me, no more bringing her in sleeping in the carrier.  She hasn't met the weight limit yet, but it was time, and we were able to hand it over to Beth to get ready for baby Sunny!  Stella is 19.8lbs already! Our carrier limit is 22lbs, but I think Stella has hit the height limit which is 29" I think!  With both kids we made it to 10months in the carrier-- but Henry because he hit the weight limit then! : )  Stella loves her new seats-- she just stares out the window now!  She's still rear facing and probably will be for quite a while since they now recommend they stay rear facing til they are 2... she seems to have no problem being rear facing, so why not!

Anyway- we're all good.  A little tired and maybe a little cranky sometimes... but we're all good!  My kids inspire me to not let things get to me "too" much and to be the best mom I can!

Pictures to come... guess I better download some!

The kids... yup, it's all about the kids! : )

Let's see where we are....  Henry, Ok Henry!  Since I've been giving him a Melatonin vitamin before bed each night he has not had any night terrors!  I'm not sure if it's due to the supplement or because we're doing better at not letting him stay up too late or get too much anxiety before bed etc..  either way, what a relief!!  He did have a "daytime" terror the other day.  We were at an early easter and he just did not want to leave at all, but it was clearly naptime and Brendon had to get back to make a tee-time!  Henry fell asleep in the car and then stayed asleep on the couch when we got home.  He woke up after about an hour like he did when he was having night terrors... just crying for no reason and angry and didn't want anything.  After about 15 minutes, he was ok and then Stella woke up from her nap, so it was good timing.  I have to say daytime terrors are better than nightime ones, but still suck.  We had his conferences at school the other day which was fun since it was his first conference being in the pre-school room.  His teacher went through the activities that they do and then gave me a list of his progress, like which letters and numbers he can recognize (without counting or singing them) : )  A check on his colors, which letters he can write, which words in spanish and sign language he can do and a few other things.  They practice a lot of motor skills like lacing-- not shoes, but lacing a row on some paper etc..  they said he's very good is a good listener etc.. so it sounds like he behaves better there than at home! 

The other night Henry and I were reading books before bed as we do every night.  Henry decided he wanted to read them and a few books (granted they are only about 5-6 pages long) he had memorized word for word!  It was so cute, he was smiling away as he "read" them.  Then other books I read if I say a word wrong he corrects me... this one I always say the train was broken down and Henry corrects me, "no mom, BROKE down" not broken down.  Such a funny kid.  My favorite is when he just randomly comes up to me and says "I love you mom".  aaahh..  He'll do anything to go outside every day or to "work" with dad in the garage.  He is still just in love with Stella, always sits by her and loves her and nobody can make her laugh as much as her brother can! 

Then little miss Stella, our little angel, sweet as can be but with an attitude coming out!  If you take a toy away she goes nuts!  She's now crawling and "army crawling" all over so she's getting into Henry's toys and he doesn't like it very much!  This girls sure knows what she wants!  She's starting to eat more table food, she's finally getting the hang of it and doesn't gag much anymore.  She's eating beans, carrots, graham crackers, those yogurt melts and peaches along with babyfood, but she will hardly eat the baby food anymore- she just wants table food- so I'll start being better about that now-- I'm alway so chicken when it comes to the table food stage, it freaks me out when they gag!

Had some photo's taken by Kelly Gustafson a few weeks back.. here are a few photo's! : )  A couple of these are from another photographer too.

Shwoing his muscle!

Loves to build towers!

That's MY girl!  A priness who loves tractors!

Peek A Boo

Now Stella's turn!