My Dad & Ann visit Minnesota

So, I am REALLY behind on my blogging...mainly because I am wanting to blog about the visitors we have had over the last two months, but have not found the time to do so because...there have been visitors at my house! But, we have had lots of fun with all of our guests. For this post, I am taking you guys back to mid September when my Dad & Ann came to visit. Here are some photo highlights:

Dad & Ann with the sunset at Turtle Lake

Kiddos snuggling with Papaw after putting flowers all in his hair

Here are the boys catching frogs on their hike. This was hike attempt #2...the day before, they left the house for hike attempt #1 & within 5 minutes I heard Dawson screaming outside. Apparently, a bee had flown up his shirt & stung him 3 times! (What is it with this poor kid & things that sting you? Jelly fish & mosquitos love him too!) Anyways, he was too scared of bees to try the hike again on the first day. Papaw convinced him to try the hike again the following day. Here was the funny part: Dawson only agreed to go the second time, after he had Papaw promise to BE VERY QUIET so that the bees would not hear them coming. Then, when they left, Dawson talked my Dad's ear off...in fact, I sat out on my porch after they left & I could hear Dawson just chatting away in the distance long after I couldn't see them anymore! So much for being quiet. Maybe all the chatting scared the bees away because the second hike was a success & the bees kept their distance.

Andi going for a walk with Papaw & Ann

The weekend they were visiting, was the weekend they were running the 'fall colors wagon tours.' Unfortunately, the fall colors were not really out yet because of the crazy weather. Usually the fall colors peak here around the 3rd week of September, but because their summer weather hit so late this year, the colors did not peak until mid-October. But, we all had a good time enjoying the ride & scenery anyway.

Ann & kiddos on our wagon before we took off.

And, how sweet is this? They were enjoying the sunset the night before they left to go home.

Our FIRST snow!

I have several other posts that I need to blog about, that occured chronilogically BEFORE this one, but I am just too excited about our little bit of snow over the last couple of days. So, here are some cute pics of the kiddos in the snow. We really have gotten very little, but it was enough to make a small snowman. I am sure that in the near future, I will have ample amounts of snow to make BIG snowmen!

Andi throwing snow

Dawson throwing a snowball at me!

Andi watching the snow fly at her off the lake.

Andi trying to eat the snow!

Dawson trying to make snow angels...cutie!

The kids making their first snowman.

Andi was pouting by the door because she wanted to go back inside before Dawson had finished his snowman.

Dawson & his first 'Rosty the Snowman'

Andelynn turns THREE!

This last Saturday, my baby girl turned three years old! However, if you ask her how old she is, she will tell you she is 5. She is such a captivating little person; people tell me all the time that they can't seem to take their eyes off her.

I thought I would take a moment to share a little bit about Miss Andi-Pandi's personality.

She has the biggest imagination & spends a lot of her day pretending to be someone or something else, or acting out her favorite movies & shows. And, when she is in this mode, that we call Andi-land, she is very hard to distract or deter. So, if she is pretending to be a kitty cat & Dawson comes up & irritates her, she remains in character and just squalls at him with an annoyed squall. We think she is destined to be an actress, or some 'right-brained' profession.

She is VERY high maintenance & her middle name should have been Drama!

She has the greatest laugh, that deep down giggly laugh, that I have ever heard.

She is the pickiest eater anyone has EVER seen & she is known to fast for days at a time. She is a vegetarian who gags at the sight of meat, but she also doesn't eat vegetables...some vegetarian hu? She doesn't eat fruit either. What does she eat? Very little. Thank God for pediasure!

She HATES strangers & up until recently, she used to hit anyone who tried to talk to her or touch her that she didn't know. I have been apologizing to everyone for two years now for this behavior. Hopefully, we are finally past this phase.

(SIDE NOTE for those who don't know this: According to her pediatrician, she falls into the category of 'Sensory Disorder' which explains a lot of her quirkiness...the trouble eating, dealing with strangers & strange environments...etc. It isn't severe enough to require intervention, but Andi still has to learn how to overcome these obsticles. Her pediatrician thinks that by the time she starts kindergarten, she will have out grown the disorder/ be able to function normally.)

She LOVES anything girly. If it sparkles, she loves it. She loves all the princesses, Aerial, Tinkerbell, Dora & Mickey Mouse. She declares everything to be 'BEAUTIFUL' or 'SO PWETTY' or 'SO SPARKLE.'

She loves her 'Bubba', when he is being nice to her of course, and follows him around the house copying his every move. It is so cute to watch her mimicking him. Of course, it isn't very cute to watch her mimick his bad behavior. I love the sound of the two of them gigling together!

She makes goofy silly faces all the time...she constantly has us cracking up.

She has the sweetest little voice you have ever heard. No matter what she is saying, she adds a dramatic high pitched crescendo...like everything is so exciting to talk about. It is so cute! She has so many cute sayings, but my favorite is when she introduces herself...she says "Hola, My Andewynn."

I took her 3 year old pictures at the camp across the street from our house. Here are a few more pics of our beautiful 'baby' girl! Happy Birthday Andelynn!

Church Visiting

Since we have moved to Minnesota, we have visited quite a few churches. We have narrowed the prospects down to two different churches now...so we are getting close to finding a 'permanent' church home here. But, I had a funny experience a few weeks ago. I am firm believer that ALL things happen for a reason, even the really small things that seem insignificant. So, after we had visited the 4th church, I ran into a lady from that congregation the next day at Target. I began to wonder if that was a 'sign' from God that we should attend that particular church. However, over the next couple of days, I ran into several more people from several of the congregations we had visited. So, it wasn't a sign from God at all. It was just a sign that we live in a very small town now.

Hettie visits Minnesota!

Last weekend we had our first official visitor! Hettie came & spent Labor Day weekend with us & we were so happy to see her. In Texas, she came & spent every other weekend with us...so prior to us moving here, the longest she had EVER gone without seeing 'her' babies, was 3 weeks. I think it had been 8 weeks this time & she is already planning her next trip back! Here are some of her trip highlights:

Here are the kiddos tackling her at the airport.

We watched the sunset on Turtle Lake.

We ate dinner at the wonderful pizza joint in town.

Dawson, of course, had to take her to see Tall Bunyan

They rode the Tall Bunyan train.

Did a little sidewalk jumping.

Played putt-putt at the Tall Bunyan putt-putt.

Hettie gots LOTS of hugs.

And, Hettie's favorite, she read them bedtime stories every night.

We rented a boat for a day & saw many beautiful lake views.

Hettie with Boo #1 (she has always called him her baby boo...then started calling Andi 'baby boo 2')

Her last day here, we took her to Buena Vista Ski resort. It sits on top of the continental divide & overlooks 9 lakes. I will be coming back here in the next few weeks to take fall colors pictures.

If you look close, you can see Hettie & then the kids (up higher) hiking the last leg up to the top.

Hettie at the top!

And, here is a little video of when Hettie was here. One night, the kids picked out the book 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' to read. I warned Hettie that Dawson likes to say that part really silly. But, Andi was the one who had them cracking up laughing saying the funny words. Here they are 'reading' the book:

The language of Andi

I have realized that I always post blogs about all the funny things Dawson says, but I haven't really posted about the funny things Andi says. So, here are some funny things she is saying right now. I will first post the correct way to say something, then follow that with the way Andi says it. Some of them are too cute & I can't seem to correct her.

1. "I'm falling!" / Andi says "My fallings!"

2. "Mama, carry me." / Andi says "Mama, care for you." (because I always ask her 'do you want me to carry you?')

3. "What's that noise?" / Andi says "What's that noisy?" or "What's that noising?"

4. "I'm upside down." / Andi says "My up is down."

5. She pronounces Flounder from The Little Mermaid as "Wounter."

6. Instead of 'teddy bear', she says "Ted Ye bear."

7. She calls a bath tub a "take-a-bath", like it is all one word, and a sink a "wash-your-hands." So, yesterday while cleaning the house she asked me if I was 'cleaning the take-a-bath', and when I took her to the bathroom at the restaurant she said 'Look! A wash-your-hands!"

8. She pronounces 'butterfly' as 'betterfly'.

9. She calls all Barbies "Pwincesses."

10. And my personal favorite: Anything she sees that reminds her of Christmas, she says "LOOK Qwitmas!"

11. She just said one I had forgotten about: She calls ponies, like My little pony, "pee-nos."

We found a swimming pool!

This is Kohls resort, which is right around the corner from our house. It is such a beautiful resort. I discovered the other day, that Bemidji only has TWO swimming pools in town (both indoor), and that one of the two is at Kohls! Whoopee! So, Derek & I took the kiddos for a swim last weekend.

Andi hanging out in the pool.

A little bit wider shot so you can see more of the pool area.

Dawson hanging out in the pool.

Andi had a blast 'pushing' the boys into the water.

My crazy boys jumping in.

And, Derek with his two munchkins. How cute are they paddling around? I think they were using every single floatie the resort had. It sure will be nice to be able to go swimming here in the dead of winter!

Sunset on Turtle Lake

This is the BEST sunset we have had so far in Minnesota. I was totally in awe...

My favorite time of day, when the trees look like silouettes against the evening sky.

The is Mekenok island on Turtle Lake. There are 3 islands on Turtle Lake, but this one is the only one people live on. There are 6 houses on Mekenok island, and the three piers at the end of our street belong to the island residents. How crazy is it that they have to take a boat across to their house. Obviously, these houses are summer homes since there are times of the year that you can't get to & from the house.

Another shot of the amazing sunset.

This picture is entertaining to me. When I was taking the photo, all I was seeing was how cool the lines of the swing looked against the sunset. When I loaded the photo onto my computer, it made me laugh. See, most people would have been sitting on the bench enjoying the sunset, but I was crouching uncomfortably in the grass taking a picture enjoying the sunset through photography. Maybe there will be a season in my life where I am one of the ones sitting on the bench, but for now, I am happily crouching in the grass. :-)

Across the street

Our neighbors across the street, have a family camp that they open up from May-Aug. So, as of two weeks ago, they have all left their 'summer home' and headed for their 'winter home' in Port Aransas, Texas! We told them to wave at our family as they drove through the state. But, they told us before they left that we could make ourselves at home there while we are gone. All of the cabins are all locked up of course, but we could use their beach on the lake, their pier, and most importantly...their playground. The kiddos love going over there & it is great that we have such a big property for the kids to play on. I will have to take some more pics of the camp & post those later...they really have an amazing little setup. These are pics of the kids enjoying the merry go round & the see-saw. It wasn't really cold enough for the hats this evening (low 60s), but the kids love them & had to have them on. Thanks Papaw & Ann for the awesome hats & mittens!

Postcards

Dawson decided he wanted to send everyone back in Texas a postcard. So, I took him to the store, let him pick out the postcards & decide who got which one, and then I wrote EXACTLY what he told me to write on each card. If you can enlarge the picture to see what he wrote everyone, you will probably find it amusing. He was in a VERY silly mood when writing these. He would tell me what he wanted me to write & if I hesitated at all, he would look at me sternly and say "Write the words Mom. Write. The. Words." Yes sir.

Spiderman boots

Dawson LOVES his new spiderman snowboots! If he ever had to choose between me & the boots, I think I would 'get the boot'...hehe. He has been wearing them every day since he got them, and obviously, he thinks they look great with any outfit. This was his idea to pose in his spiderman room, with his spiderman duds on...even his idea to give me his 'spiderman face.' Gotta love this kid!

I totally overshot my target...

***Disclaimer: this blog post contains some vanity, bear with me***

Okay, so I strongly believe that ALL women should know how to use their charm. There are several circumstances in life, where it is vitally important for a woman to be able to persuade a man to do what she wants, and all women need to know how to 'work their magic.' Are you wondering what the heck I am talking about?

I got pulled over today for driving 15 miles over the speedlimit...aaahhhaa, you say. A quick glance to make sure the police officer was, in fact a male, I began the process of 'working my magic.' I looked into the rearview mirror to make sure my hair still looked good, planted on my best flirty smile & reminded myself to beef up the Texas accent a little bit when speaking to him. Here is what happened:

The officer walked up to my car...he was probably mid 30s and about average looking.
Officer: "M'am, do you know why I pulled you over?"
Why do they ask that...such a dumb question, here comes my sarcastic side...I flash him a smile.
Me: "Uh...because I won a million dollars?"
My answer totally took him off guard. He chuckled several times. He seemed REALLY nervous.
Officer: "You were going 70 in a 55. I see you have Texas plates...do you live here?"
Me: "Yes, we just moved here about a month ago. We will be living here for a year while my husband works on the pipeline."
Officer: "Wow. Did you keep your house in Texas? Are you renting or buying a place here?
I answer his questions, with a little flirtiness of course.
Officer: "Are you working somewhere in town or going to get a job here?"
Does he need to know this to give me a ticket...he hasn't even asked me for my license yet. Again, I answer his questions.
Officer: "So...where do you live?"
I did mention I was married didn't I? He seemed to realize he may have 'gotten off track' because then he quickly said....
Officer: "Oh, uh, can I see you license?"
Okay ladies, here is the clincher. The entire time we had been chating, the sky was overcast. When I went to hand him my license, the sun came out & was shining at me from directly behind his head. Now, I have blue eyes...and one thing I know about them is that they look fantastic in direct sunlight. So, I seized my moment. I kind of peek up at him from the corners of my eyes, give him my best flirty sly smile & held my license out to him. His response was hilarious. He actually began stuttering!
Officer: "I...uh...thank...you, uhm...did you...uh..." Then his face turned beet red, he shrugged his shoulds and said "I, uhm....completely lost my train of thought." At this point I was really trying not to laugh and he was looking at me kind of frantically.
Me: "That's okay...you were asking me where I lived..."
Officer: "Oh...right..."

He of course, just gave me a warning to slow down. But, I totally overshot my target with this one. I was just trying to flirt enough to get out of a ticket & I almost got a proposal for a second husband. Apparently I can tone down 'the magic' while living here in Minnesota.

Some Dawson funnies

Here are two funny stories about Minnesota:

1. Dawson said, "Mom, How did Minnesota get way up here?" I began thinking about how to answer that question when he said, "Did God bring Minnesota way up here from Texas & drop it right here when he got tired? You know, God is big enough to move Minnesota. He is even stronger than Spiderman."

2. Yesterday Dawson asked me "How are we walking around here in Minnesota?" I looked at him with a very confused face. Then he said "Like how are we walking around & talking because we are so high up? We are arribe & Hettie is abaho." (Thanks to Dora for the spanglish.) I had to show him on his globe that yes, we did go up from Texas...but, we went North, we did not leave the ground & go up.

Here are some misc. stories:

1. One Sunday on the way to church, I said to Dawson "OOOHHH you are so handsome! Who made you so handsome?" He rolled his eyes, looked away & said "Pssst...not you."

2. One day Dawson was showing me how he could fold a napkin into a rectangle, then fold it in half to be a square, then fold it in half again to be a triangle. I was very impressed & I asked him "How did you get so smart?" He said "I just use my head to be smart. My head has grown bigger because my brains got bigger. My brains are not short anymore because they grew taller now that I am four."

Jingles & Woodland Creatures

Dawson names everything 'Jingles.' Everything. If he gets the opportunity to name something, we always know what he will say. (My Dad's girlfriend Ann has a cat named Jingles, so that is where Dawson got the name from.) So far, we have had two Christmas trees named 'Jingles the tree', several bugs named 'Jingles the bug', and a very friendly backyard squirrell (in Texas) named...you guessed it, 'Jingles the squirell.' On that note, let me introduce to you...'Jingles the Chipmunk.' This is the best photo I have taken of him so far, because he is a fast little booger!



Either it is just a coincidence, or our family attracts small woodland creatures. Ever since we moved in, this chipmunk has been doing a lot of mischeif around our house, particularly by the garage. We used to keep our big outdoor trash outside of the garage, until this little guy rummaged through it a few times, knocked it over & spread garbage all over all driveway. After the second time he did it, we moved the trash can inside. The funny thing is that he LOVES our garage! Every time we open the door, he tries to sprint inside. One night, he even managed to get to sleep inside the garage because we did not know he was there...during the night he ate Dawson's foam Astros ball, well, more like chewed it to peices. Uh oh...it was Dawson's new ball & he was hysterical about it. So, Granna mailed him a new one...thanks Granna! But, here are a few more crazy things the chipmunk has done:

One day, I thought someone was outside our door because I heard some noise. I look outside, and see the trash all spread out over the drive again. So, I was just hearing the chipmunk. I open the door to go clean up the mess, and the Chipmunk flies out of the trash can & tries to sprint into the garage...and rams into my shin instead! He still managed to get in & I had to chase him out.

This last Sunday, he sprinted into the garage, right past Derek & stole a french fry before running back out. Then, Dawson acidentally left the door to the house open when he came inside. Derek went to tell him that he needed to make sure to close the door because bugs would get in. Dawson said "Yeah, or the chipmunk will come inside again, just like he did a minute ago." Derek didn't know if he was kidding so he questioned him some more. Dawson very nonchalantly answered "Yeah, the chipmunk came inside & went under the table over there." Sure enough, Derek walked over to the end table, gave it a little kick...and 'Jingles the chipmunk' went running back into the garage!

We see him every couple of days running around our property & on our porch. I will keep you posted on the Jingle saga in the coming months. I am sure that when the weather turns colder, we will really have a persistent chipmunk trying to get into our heated garage.