Creation of the Week

This deluxe marble tower was created by Derek. He likes to stay up late and play with toys all by himself. That is why you have kids right? The toys!

Aaawwww

Arboretum

Last weekend we celebrated a glorious 72 degree day. (One week later we are stuck at 48 degrees. :-( We journeyed to the MN Landscape Arboretum http://www.arboretum.umn.edu Grandma Nancy brought her handy magnifying glass so we could explore interesting things. She always knows how to spruce (haha) up any trip, making it magical.
We hugged some big trees. These trees require more than one set of arms.
We explored the shrub maze with much enthusiasm. The Junior maze has playground tubes to climb through.

Good Eats

Allie started rice cereal and loves it. She no longer screeches at us from her high chair while we eat dinner. She can't wait to get her hands on some real stuff.

Chatter

And so it begins. Miss Allie, hogging the telephone. Already pushing for her own line, and her own cell, complete with all the fancy features.

Painting-A How To Manual

First strap the baby, who won't nap, to your back. Next, enlist the two year old, who won't nap, in sanding the walls.
Then, give the four year old, who never naps, a roller brush.
Then give the roller brush to the two year old who wants to paint, too!
Finally, realize the color isn't exactly what you expected and redo it in a different color.

Allie's Dedication

We dedicated baby Allie to God this past Sunday. Pastor Greg helped us. We chose a verse for Allie that is our prayer for her. Colossians 1:9-10. "May God fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. May you live a life worthy of Him and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of Him." We love our little girl and want nothing more than to see her be a Child of God.

Heavenly Bodies

Tyler's current obsession is planets. He has collected all the Planet Heroes, a series from Fisher Price. There is one Hero per planet. His favorite is Dazzle from planet Venus. This is Tyler pretending to be Saturn. He says, "Dad, Dad! Be the Sun!" So while Derek blazes Tyler orbits him. Notice his "rings". Sometimes he adjusts the rings to vertical and pretends he is Uranus (which orbits on it's side.) Ah the imagination of the young.

Allie is 4 Months Old

Allie (Allerina to Daddy) is now four months old. She just learned a new trick as you can see on the video. She is so proud of herself. At her well baby check-up on Monday she weighed in at 17 pounds, 4 ounces. (97th percentile) and was 25.5 inches long. (99+ percentile)