Kayla's Bachelorette Party

In traditional fashion, we had a girls night on the town to celebrate Kayla's upcoming wedding to Bobby - for Kayla we went Chicago Style.

Here are a few pics before we headed out for the evening.

My beautiful mother and her beautiful sisters

And the whole family (that was present) - some of my favorite women

Ashley, Kayla, & I

Kayla and her ladies

Dinner at Buca Di Beppo where we showered Kayla with gifts (most of which were definitely NOT practical which was fantastic) and a question game in which Kayla had to take quite a few shots (and also got to give some out!)

For example....she also got these in black

Followed by some fun at Howl at the Moon (a dueling pianos bar)

Kayla on stage

Is that Grandma Cathy drinking out of a bucket! What has gotten in to her?! I hear she did a shot too which I unfortunately missed. Nice work mom!Molly, Hannah, and Abby - not sure what they're doing but they look like they're having fun!!Everybody dance around Cheri....

Now Christy....

Op..and now it's Cindy's turn!

This was followed by a drag show at the Baton - unfortunately no photography allowed (because there would've been some good ones!)

After that there was a lot of running around in the rain after which we all looked pretty great!

Thank you ladies for a Fantastic night and most importantly one that Kayla will remember (or maybe not?!)

Happy Birthday Colin!

We celebrated Colin's 1st Birthday on April 23. I can't believe our baby is 1! The Tetzlaff's helped up celebrate with pizza and of course cake.

Here is a pic of our little guy on his Birth day.

And 1 year later - enjoying his cake.

Before things got too messy

And after....he went straight to the bath

It's amazing what a change a year makes. We love you Colin :)

Another Post?!?

I know...2 posts in one day when I haven't had one in weeks. I just had a few more things I wanted to add and the Easter one was getting to long.

What else has been going on in our world?

We replaced the pathfinder with a 2007 Nissan Altima. It's kind of fun to have a car again! Eli is obsessed with it (well he's just obsessed with cars, trucks, buses, semis, motorcycles - really anything that has a motor), but he loves to tell everyone about "Daddy's" new car.

We've been able to have a lot of outside time. It's been such a beautiful spring. Eli mostly rides his tractor around, but takes breaks sometimes to push Colin around in his walker. Since Colin doesn't like to move it around himself - he usually enjoys the rides.

Last weekend we made a trip to Iowa for Cal and Michelle Trumm's wedding. It was a great day! Here are a few pics from the celebration (I apologize - I'm not the best at taking pictures)

Mr & Mrs. Trumm

Me and my boys (minus one)

Typical goofy face

Eli & Zoey

Eli & Aunty Kayla (hope he has this much fun at her wedding!)

Just because I loved the baby blues

Colin all tuckered out after all that dancing - Bobby's got the touch ;)

And perhaps my favorite picture of the night - Father of the Groom/Best Man dancing the night away. Love it!

Congrats to Cal and Michelle. Thanks for letting us help you celebrate!

A recent Eli story - because I don't want to forget this one. So...we all now what a "busy" child he is (busy being an understatement). Well kids as busy and rough as Eli get a lot of time outs. Perhaps he's had too many recently b/c I was recently changing Colin's diaper (pretty routine stuff around here) and Eli walks up to me with his Elmo and swings him at my leg. Pretty soon I hear this, "Elmo, you don't hit mommy! You need a TIME OUT! Here...you sit in the chair" a few seconds later "ELMO SIT!!" (like he was actually getting up). BTW - the "chair" is where Eli gets his very own time outs.

Oh and another one (I really need to write all of them down!). Me - "Good morning Eli", Eli - "Morning mommy", Me - "Eli what happened to your eye?" (he had a new cut on his eyelid and it was a little swollen), Eli- "it hurts", Me - "I know it hurts, what happened?", Eli - "Daddy hit me". Not good.......please don't say that at daycare (by the way - that is NOT what happened) - perhaps is the HUGE tractor and firetruck that he feels the need to sleep with everynight!

Lastly, after quite few months of searching, I finally got a new job. My Deloitte days will soon be behind me and now I'm on to Capella University. So excited for the new opportunity!

Ok - enough rambling (if anyone is actually still reading). We have a busy weekend ahead - our baby is 1 tomorrow and Kayla's bachelorette in Chicago on Saturday. Should have lots of pics to post!!! Stay tuned - maybe they'll be up next month.

Easter

Now that Easter was almost 3 weeks ago I thought I'd FINALLY post some pics.

We spent Easter with the Tetzlaff clan. It was a gorgeous day and the easter egg hunt was a HUGE success (notice Eli's full basket). The eggs kept falling out as he was trying to pick more up.

Colin just took it all in and hoped that someone would bring him some eggs.

Eli and Jack got quite a bit of yard work done too with the new garden tools.

After some wonderful food and some rest we spent some quality time at the park. Eli is getting around the playground pretty well this year and Colin was LOVIN the swing.

Check out Colin's big smiles in the swing!

Bye Bye Pathfinder

After talking about it for about 3+ years, we finally said goodbye to our 1998 Nissan Pathfinder otherwise known at our house as 'Daddy's car'. A little bittersweet - as Travis said his life changed pretty significantly while owning that car. He bought it a few days before he moved up here to Minneapolis. He went from being right out of college and broke to 5 years later being a married man with two kids and a house. Crazy how much your life can change in 5 years.

On to the next vehicle. What will it be?!

Another month....

So I know that I am long overdue for this update as it’s been over a month. Here are some of the highlights of our February and first part of March –

(1) Sunday trip to the zoo with the Tetzlaff clan. Of course Eli and Jack HAD to find the water. They seem to find it wherever they go.
Colin and Lauren were SO much easier – they just hung out in their strollers. They’ll be in the water soon enough!

(2) Welcome Cole William McCarthy on February 19th. He was long awaited by the McCarthy family and all their family and friends. He is absolutely precious and we are so glad that he is here. Unfortunately he is already causing his parents more grief than they deserve – but he is quite the little fighter and it going to be one tough cookie. Kristie- I stole a pic from Facebook of the little guy b/c I HAD to have a picture of the newest addition on the blog and I didn’t get one when I was at your house! Isn't he sweet :)

(3) Saturday evening trip to Chuckie Cheese. So MUCH fun! Eli loved all the rides and Colin enjoyed watching all the activity. Here are a few pics of “Yucky cheese” as Eli thinks its called…

Colin - oh so tired, but riding the merry go round anyway.

(4) We made a long awaited trip to Iowa for a weekend so that we could meet baby Cole (see #2), see family and friends, and help Dad (Grandpa Mark) celebrate his birthday. Travis and I hadn’t been there since Christmas (which is a long time for us) so it was great to get back.

Eli and Maria got to play for a couple hours and had a LOT of fun. This is what we found them doing in Maria’s room….a couple of little monkeys.

We made a visit to play with Zoey too, but unfortunately the boys were both starting to get sick so it wasn’t quite as crazy. Eli and Zoey still had fun playing the my mommy, my mommy game….

(5) On March 14th we FINALLY got to play outside! Yay! Eli finally knows how to drive the tractor grandma and grandpa gave him ALL by himself. He needs to work on the steering still, but it’s progress from last year. I’m picturing Colin to be riding in the wagon by the end of the summer (could be scary!). The boys were thrilled to be outside and of course we had a tantrum when it was time to go inside and eat dinner. Love the warm weather!

I think that’s the longest Colin has sat without wanting to be held for a LONG time (We hope spring is here to stay!)

(6) Thought for the day – This morning I was in major need of some caffeine so I treated myself to some Caribou Coffee on my way to work (my fav). They started this new thing where when you’re in the store you can write down thoughts and “what you stay awake for” and then they put them on their cups. One of the ones on my cup today was “Spend time with your kids, tomorrow they’re a day older”. I thought that was a good one so I decided after work all I was going to do was make a quick dinner and then play with my kids. Well turns out they both had grumble soup for lunch – that combined with going to bed to late last night = NOT fun playtime. They got baths and were in bed around 7:30. I still spent time with them I guess – just that somedays that time is more enjoyable than others. Maybe tomorrow night will go better?

January what?!

I realize that it is now February 6th and I have not had an update in over a month. Where did January go!?! Well...I would say it went to work as it is that time of year...my favorite time of year. NOT! Busy season is in full swing and Travis is equally as busy so the whole month was kind of a blur. Below are the "highlights" of our January.

1) Lauren Kathryn Tetzlaff was born on the 12th. She is a perfect little baby girl and we are so happy that she is here. It's gonna be fun having a little girl around here with all these boys ;) Congrats to the Tetzlaffs!

Eli really likes to hold her. He seems to be a little more gentle with her than he was when Colin was born - well...he is still really rough with Colin so who knows what's gotten into him with her

2) Grandpa Scott and Grandma Jayne came to visit with some friends for the Vikings vs. Cowboys game. We went to Champps to cheer on the Vikes! (minus Chuck) Eli was really into it actually - it was fun. Unfortunately we won't be cheering them on tomorrow in the Super Bowl

3) The boys got to spend a week at Grandma and Grandpa's. Travis and I really missed the boys but did enjoy a weekend of without responsibilities. We went out for two nice dinners and decided that in my in fact actually be cheaper to have kids! The boys had fun, but unfortuneately both of them ended up getting sick so they weren't quite themselves. Mom (Grandma Cathy) got a flashback to what it was like to have little ones and had to get up in the middle of the night a couple of times - it reaffirmed to her why you should have kids when your young! Even though they weren't feeling the greatest they still got to go visit Aunt Kayla in Iowa City for a day. She spoiled them of course. Eli got to do a Build-A-Bear and go to the Children's Museum. He LOVES his new teddy bear. Teddy Bear has been added to the "stuff" that Eli HAS to have in his bed when he sleeps and I would say that Teddy Bear (yes - so far that is his name) is a second to the beloved "ducky". We even have to take his shoes off every night because nobody can sleep with tennis shoes on (even stuffed animals!) :) Thank you Aunt Kayla!

4) After the week in Iowa Mom and Dad brought the boys home and spent the weekend. The boys seemed glad to be home and I think Grandma Cathy was equally glad to bring them home (see #3). It was great having them here and we (especially Eli) were sad to see them go home.

5) Eli and I found some time to play outside last weekend in all the snow. He's not quite sure about the sled (such a wimp sometimes)....

But he found his tractor in the garage and wanted to ride it in the worst way and he wanted to paly with his basketball hoop. I think we're ready for spring for SO many reasons.

After writing this I realize that I have no pictures of Colin in here. Sorry Colin....we think you're adorable and we love you. I'll do better next time.