Since Our Last Post

Since the last post about 6 months ago (I know...way to long). We have had just a few things go on.  Here is a nice long post....
AUGUST
Eli was potty trained. His reward...a new bike!


We went on our first official family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. We had an absolute BLAST!!! Even more fun than we anticipated. We got a fantastic cabin where the Schlemme, McCarthy, McAllister, and Manternach families all got to stay under one roof! It was a fantastic weekend.

The Mama's and their kiddos (round 2)



Can't get enough of these baby blues :)



Look at us, you would think there wasn't any sun involved in our vacation!
  Not the greatest family picture, but at least we're all together!



This about sums up how much fun we had!



 Labor Day Weekend - Grandpa Scott and Grandma Jayne came for a visit.  We had some fun at the Minnesota State Fair.  Food on a stick, drinks, some rides....



And 2 tired little boys!



 SEPTEMBER

We participated in our first SMA fundraiser - the Minnesota Chapter Families of SMA Walk 'n' Roll.  With the help of so many people, Team Colin raised over $5,000 - amazing!.  The support that we got from people from so many different places was so touching and truly inspiring.  There were a lot of emotions that day, but the biggest thing that Travis and I took away I think is that the kids were genuinely happy.  We left that day with a more positive outlook than negative so I would say...it was a success!

We celebrated Elijah's 3rd birthday on the 14th (and the 11th).  THE gift of the birthday was the Handy Manny tools and tool belt.  He was beyond excited and squealed every single tools name as he pulled it out of the box.  Aunt Kayla...you're such a good shopper....

OCTOBER
We had a fun weekend visit from the McCarthy clan. It was a GORGEOUS fall weekend so we visited a pumpkin patch.  Lunch, pony rides, apples, and of course..picked out our pumpkins!

The kids and the pumpkins they chose

We celebrated Halloween in our usual tradition.  Dinner with the Tetzlaff's and some Trick or Treating.  Eli and Jack really enjoyed it this year.  Every house...Eli "I'm trick or treatin', I want candy.  Oh and wait here comes Jack."  So cute.


Me and my favorite Elmo (in 2010 - Eli was Elmo in 2009 - see previous post)



Allison and her little princess

 

A very homeade Handy Manny (what other character is there?!)



The cutest little old man ever!



And..trying to take a picture of all 4 kids.  This is about right....of course Jack is smiling!

 October was also a month with a lot of decisions.  A random phone call in mid-October (actually the weekend the McCarthy's were in town) from Ohnward Bank in Cascade triggered us to make some very big decisions that resulted in a couple of months of chaos in our household.  At the end of October we decided to leave our home, good friends, and jobs in the Twin Cities and return to our roots.  Here we come Cascade Iowa - whoa!!!

That led to November and December, which pretty much consisted of packing up the house, completing house projects to get it ready to sell, many trips (by many different people) to haul all of our stuff, finding a place to live in Cascade, eating at our favorite places, spending as much time as possible with our friends.....

Some things fun, some not so fun.  The Knuth crew came to town for Thanksgiving so we had a big meal and then went to cheer on the Hawks against Minnesota on Saturday (rather not talk about that game!)

On Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend Travis officially moved from Richfield...to his parents ;)  Only temporarily of course.  The boys and I stayed for a couple more weeks.  The weekend between when Travis moved and me and boys moved we did a lot of driving.  Minneapolis to Cascade, Cascade to Chicago (and back), and then back to Minneapolis.  The driving...not exactly fun.  The weekend however made it worth it.  Went to Chicago for round 2 with the girls (Kelly, Laura, Erin, Jenny, and Kayla).  A little different tone than last year for a couple of reasons, but still a REALLY great time and so great to catch up with everyone. 

Me and the boys spent our last week very busy being social butterflies.  It was hard on them though being in an empty house withouth their dad.  We had a VERY larget meltdown at one point in which Eli cried (very heavily), "I want my bed, and my couches, and my toys, and I miss my daddy SO MUCH!"  While sad at the time, he got over it quickly and just called his Dad - Colin just relaxed and sucked his thumb in his usual fashion.

Thru the craziness, the boys still find time to relax

A very bad snowstorm (~2 ft of snow in two days..one for the record books) forced us to leave a day early.  So on December 10, we made our trek to Cascade for good (as residents anyway).  Lots of memories in this house...not easy to leave.  A new chapter begins for us.  However, we still own it so I guess we have a little getaway home?!



Yes..I borrowed the pic from our listing....



I was NOT good about pictures at Christmas this year..not really sure why.  This one of Colin is really the only good one I got.  The boys really enjoyed it this year.  Colin got excited about opening things and Eli had the perfect reaction for almost every gift.  For example, one of the first gifts he opened was a sweat suit.  He pulled it out and said "Awww - CUTE!".  He is loving all of his farm toys and Colin is very much enjoying his puzzles.

Unfortunately no picture of our new home.  Maybe in the spring?!  We are settling in well...still adjusting to life in Cascade, but really enjoying it.  We LOVE our new house, particularly the attached garage and the kitchen.  The boys absolutely love being so close to their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, and other friends.  Mom and Dad like the extra hands too :)

 

We ended the year by going out with some good friends on New Year's Eve.

Travis..you're so mysterious...

While 2010 held many challenges (some of which have only begun) and some sadness for us, we also had a lot of joy and have so much to be thankful for.  Our blog posts are only a fraction of the joy and blessings that we have..and looking back there are a lot of good memories that have been captured.  To a great 2011....



As July Ends

As July 2010 ends, I keep thinking about how on July 1 (and July 12 for that matter) our life was the same, but yet so much different than it is on July 31. July 13, 2010 will be a day that our family will remember, the day that we found out that "Our Colin's" future, and our future is going to be so much different than what we would ever have imagined; the day that we received the diagnosis of SMA. These past couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions, uncertainties, worries, hope, faith, love and so many things that can't be put into words. I say that our life is the same, because erase this news, and nothing in our life has changed. We have the same blessed life - our daily life is the same, Colin is the same, and so far his brother isn't cutting him any slack (big surprise ;). But, we now have a new weight on our shoulders. Over these past couple of weeks, two well known quotes keep popping into my head, "Ignorance is bliss" and "Knowledge is power". Before we found out that Colin has this disease, we were completely ignorant to what lie ahead for us, we thought that eventually he would figure it out, start moving and before we knew it would catch up to his brother and be running around like crazy. While I was a little worried about him, I didn't really think that anything was seriously wrong with him. In that respect, ignorance was bliss and we didn't have the worries that we do now. Part of me wishes we could go back to that; unfortunately, that would not change anything. So...now we move on to "knowledge is power". The best thing that we can do now for Colin (aside from loving him to pieces like we already do) and our family is to obtain knowledge; knowledge about the disease, the best doctors and resources to care for him, the best way for our family to adapt to what we were given, how we can become active in fighting for a cure that will help our sweet little boy and so many other children and families that we are learning about. So many things to think about and figure out. We will be seeing some specialists next week and will hopefully walk away from these appointments a lot more knowledgable about what is ahead for us and more confident in our care for him. Anyone reading this, THANK YOU for any thoughts or prayers you have been sending our way. Whether you have actually told us or not, we can feel it and it means so much to us.

Weekend of Visitors

While Travis spent the weekend in Colorado with Danny and Willie, the boys and I had some visitors which was SO much fun. Friday night Kristie and Maria came to town. We got pizza and played in the slip 'n' slide. On Saturday we did a little shopping and they headed home. It was so much fun having them here. Of course I couldn't find my camera, but I did get a little video.



Saturday afternoon auntie Kayla came to town. We ran some errands and went to the park on Saturday evening. Then Sunday was pool day!! It was so nice having her here - kind of like old times :)

LOVE, LOVE this picture!

Thank you for coming to visit us :)

4th of July

We spent the 4th in the Wisconsin Northwoods with the Tetzlaffs. It was a weekend filled with some time on the boat, a parade, a little playing in the rain, a LOT of great food and great company.

The most memorable float - a car made completely out of wood -

Eli pushing Colin around town...let's just say it took us a while to get anywhere!

A rainy 4th of July - but the boys still had a blast.

Our Colin

Since my last blog update was dedicated to Eli and how he humors us, this one is dedicated to "our Colin" (as his brother calls him). He is 14 months old today. Although he isn't moving yet (which has its pros and cons), he is doing a lot of fun things. His vocabulary currently primarily consists of Mama, Dada, and STOP. I would say the STOP is the most commonly used (big surprise), usually used when Callie is barking or Eli is doing something he doesn't like (but not hurting him – then he cries). He talks A LOT, usually quite loudly, but there are only a few words we can actually understand. Otherwise, it's mostly just noise.

Colin is getting quite pudgy as well. He eats WAY more than his older brother and at some meals eats more than me! He's become quite a beggar for food, he knows when someone is eating and usually wants to take part. He'll typically eat almost anything – a quality that I'm sure he'll outgrow too soon!

His personality shows more and more every day. I predict that he is going to be a very sweet boy, with a temper. He is very sweet and loves to cuddle, which I love. Give him his puppy and his thumb goes in his mouth and his head down to your shoulder. The kid is like a light switch though – one second he will be happy and laughing and the next he'll be so mad you don't even know what to do with him. Doesn't take much to make him mad – he is starting to throw things that he doesn't want, etc. It's becoming more apparent that he is entering the toddler years. The best is when we have 2 tantrums going on in our house at once (JK!).

He really likes to sit and play with buckets, balls, and anything else that he can either take in and out of a bucket or bang together. He also loves to read books – he gets the biggest smile when it's time to read and usually tries to turn the pages faster than I can read them. He LOVES LOVES music, we turn the music on and his face lights up and usually the shoulders start moving, which is pretty hilarious. Between him and Eli and their love of music, we may have a rock band in our basement sometime. Yikes!

I think those are the biggest highlights for him right now. These boys seem to get more entertaining every day so once Colin starts talking more, it's going to be interesting!

Below are some of his 1 year pics that Allison took about a month ago. So cute! (At least I think so)

Some Eli Quotes

Eli has said a few things this past week that have given Travis and I some good laughs and since I am kind of using this as my kids scrapbook I needed to write them down.

1) Getting ready to get out the door before work and Eli finally gets out of bed (which is a struggle every morning) and the first thing out of his mouth "oh man, I should be mowing the lawn". Travis' response "remember that when your sixteen!"

2) Eli is really into doing things "my, by yourself" these days so one night he is getting out of the bath by himself and I am helping him a little. He is standing on the edge of the bath and says "I wanna look at that guy" (because he can see in the mirror in the bathroom). I said "well who is that guy?". His response "that's Eli - he's pretty cute". At that moment I wouldn't say I disagreed one bit.

3) Again in the bath (different night) he is playing with a little water cup and says "mom, I going to pee in my cup" so I took the cup away from him. After a lot of whining and bargaining with him that if I gave it back he would NOT pee in the cup I gave it back to him. He says, "Thank you for listening to me Mommy". I say that to him all the time - I suppose I now need to be careful about the phrases that I use because sooner or later one is going to come back and bite me.

Sorry no pictures this post. Hopefully I will be updating with some pictures soon!

Eli’s First Tractor Ride

I just realized that I still had this post on draft form and never actually posted it. I think Eli's first big farming outing is worth blogging about so here goes.

Between job transitions (which WAS a while ago), I had a week off. So…the boys and I headed to Iowa for a couple days. It was planting season so we finally got Eli in the tractor – not willingly I might add. After a few minutes he realized how much fun he was having. Ryan even let him drive a little. I think the planter was up so hopefully there aren't any crooked rows. Grandpa Cecil wouldn't be too happy about that J

Thank you uncle Ryan – it was so much fun!

We also made a stop to see Maria's new Barbie Car. Also a lot of fun!