christmas, 2010

We went to NC and spent the first week in Charlotte and the second week at Lake Lure. Charlotte also had the first white Christmas that they have had in 47 years. It was beautiful and kept us snowed in the morning.

Here's Finn and Nana riding the carousel at Concord Mills. Finley is still sporting a black eye and bruised nose from running into the church pew 3 days before we left.

Mommy and Finn riding the train around Concord Mills. Doesn't look like that thing goes very fast until you're riding it. We had fun though.

Piper walking through a tunnel in the play area.

Holly's birthday is on the 22nd so we all got together to celebrate at Becky and Jason's house.

Piper's birthday is on the 20th so we also celebrated his birthday on the same night as Holly's. His frog cake that Becky made. It was delicious and looked amazing!

Chloe and Finn waiting patiently for their cake. By the end of the trip they were great buddies. Finley still talks about Chloe.

Piper eating cake and ice cream. He LOVED it!

Teasing him with a bite. I love this picture.

If you ever need Piper to sit still, put in a Praise Baby DVD. He can sit the whole time and watch it. Also, if you sing to him, he will just stare at you engrossed in whatever you're singing. Mom rocked him and sang to him several times and he calmed right down.

Who says Chloe can't stand still long enough to get a great picture???

Or two...

Or three...Love all three of these!

Paka giving Finn a piggyback ride through the house in the mountains. They also became great buddies through the week of living together.

I think this is a little backwards, but still so cute.

One of the very few pictures I got of Michael that whole week.

Celebrating the New Year with sparklers and fireworks!

surprise! and a deer

On November 3, we found out something very surprising...that we were going to have a 3rd little addition to our family. I was 7 weeks when we found out. It explained why I was feeling so crummy. I had been very busy for the past couple of weeks so I told myself it was because I was just tired, which I was, but for a totally different reason. At 12 weeks, we took the gender prediction test (which was right for Piper-didn't take it for Finley) and it said 'boy' before the time limit was even up. We aren't saying boy for sure, but definitely won't be surprised if it is, which is just fine. Matthew can then get his license plate that says "my 3 sons". =)

Matthew got a doe with his bow on November 6. Finley was so proud of him and was excited to go out and see it. We expect the meat to come in any day now. I'm excited for some sausage

This was on a 'boys night' when I was out on a 'girls night'. Love these nights for my sake as well as theirs. Matthew enjoys just having the boys to himself and he gets to play with tractors as long as he wants.

Every morning Bob (Matt's dad) comes out for coffee. On this day, he had Zach (Finley's cousin) with him. They are always excited to see each other and play well together. Zach is a great reader and will read book after book to Finley and Piper while they play. We wish he lived closer to us.

Finley next to his puzzle that he put together all by himself. If you look closely, you will see that not 1 piece is in the right place and they are 3 separate puzzles that he put together. He was so proud though so we took a picture and made a huge deal out of it!

Fun with stickers! Finley went through a stage where all the stickers that he played with had to go on his face which meant if you were playing with him, you would end up with stickers on your face.

A mouth full of banana, probably Piper's favorite food.

matthew's surprise birthday party

Sometime in early October, Piper starting walking in full force. Finley was a little upset that Piper could get to toys a lot faster and it was an all-around interesting time of "grab it before Piper can!" when he was getting into something he shouldn't be. Every morning we have to grab the TV remote before he does or else he will take it into the kitchen, squat down and slam it on the floor so that the batteries will come out and he can eat them. He does the same thing with every remote that he sees.

October 31 was Matthew's 30th birthday. The weekend before, he took some kids to camp. When they returned on Sunday, we had a big surprise party for Matthew. As you can see, he was quite bewildered at first and it took him a few seconds to understand what was going on. This was the first time I was able to pull off a surprise for Matthew. Also, Finley wasn't at all prepared for the birthday spanking and had no clue why all the men were jumping on his daddy and hitting him. Finley jumped in to rescue Matthew...one of my proudest moments so far as a mom. Finley was just fine once it was explained to him and we had a great party to celebrate Matthew.

piper and the chiropractor

The rest of September was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we found Piper a pediatric chiropractor. After going to his regular doctor several times and not finding anything that would account for his fussiness, we talked to a few friends who suggested a chiropractor. At this point, Matthew and I decided we had nothing to lose. I called and made the appointment. During the initial assessment, she asked if she could hold him while we talked. I handed him over and we started talking about our churches. After a few seconds she stopped me and asked how often he had a bowel movement. I told her every 2 days or so. While this isn't concerning for a child, she said that he would be much more comfortable if he were going more like every day. She noted it and we continued our conversation. A few seconds later she stopped me again and asked if he had a cough without the cold or flu. I told her about the cough that he had had since he was 5-1/2 months old. We had him in to the doctor a couple of times for it, but his lungs were always clear. She noted it and moved on. When she got to his upper back/neck area, she asked if he was still spitting up. I told her that he was still spitting up and had spit up that morning quite a bit. She noted it and then explained the adjustment process and frequency. She told me she thought that adjustments would help Piper but that I would have to commit to bringing him in once a day for the next 5 to 7 days before we would know if it was working. I did and after the 5th day, we noticed a huge improvement with all 3 problems which made him a more relaxed and happy baby. There is really no way of knowing, but she believes that it is his brace at night that could be making him twist his back out. He will be wearing that brace for at least another year at night, so looks like we're going to be great friends with his chiropractor!

Here are the boys, just hanging out one morning.

a wedding!

Kristen and Monty got married on September 11, 2010. It was a beautiful wedding and reception at our church. It may have been the first wedding where nothing visible went wrong. It was a beautiful day.

Emily and Zach walking down the aisle together. They did a great job and when they were walking out of the church, she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. So sweet.

Allie and Anna walking together. All the girls were so cute getting their hair done that morning. And it all stayed in place for hours!

Finley and Meg walking down the aisle. Meg practice at the rehearsal and that afternoon to make sure that she was dropping the flowers just perfectly. She did a great job, all the while having Finley pull on her arm.

They looked so cute together.

Sorry it's such a dark picture. It's actually the best one that we had from our camera. Bob had just had major surgery the month before, so he was tired, but everyone did great!

Mr. and Mrs. Haaland! Congratulations, Kristen and Monty!

finn turns 3!

We had been telling Finley for days that his birthday was coming up. I put his presents out on the dining room table for when he got up that morning. While we ate breakfast, he stared at the presents and kept asking about them. After breakfast, he got to open them. He was so excited!

Here he is with his presents.

Mike and Ike candy! He also got a ball, a travel pinball game, a puzzle and....

A disk for his John Deere tractor! As soon as he saw what it was, he ran off to get his tractor so that Daddy could hook it up. Our living room floor has been 'groomed' many, many times now. It looks pretty neat when he finishes and makes it look like I vacuum a lot!

Excitedly waiting for Owie (Allie), Nanna (Anna), Mick (Meg) and Grady (and Grandma, Grandpa, Kristen, Melissa and Steve too) to come over for dessert on his birthday.

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY, FINLEY! I love your smile, your laugh and your sweet spirit. What would a day be like without you asking "Did you sleep good, Mommy?" or "I give you a kiss?" or just walking into a room and saying happily, "Hi, Mommy!"? I love who you have become and can't wait to watch you learn and grow another year!

august 2010, climbing and darnice

August was the walking/climbing month for us with Piper. On August 2, I found him climbing the stairs all by himself. About a week later, I couldn't find him anywhere and then I heard a noise upstairs. He had climbed the whole staircase himself and was playing in Finley's room. This was a very scary moment for me because every time I let him climb with me behind him, he would fall back. We later got a latch for that door so he couldn't get to the stairs.

Climbing the stairs for the first time

Playing in the grass.

A very happy little boy in the grass.

August 3, Piper pulled himself up using the couch and took a couple of steps while holding on.

Just ate sweet potato and loved it!

On the last Wednesday in August, I was at church helping out with the youth group and one of the girls came up to me and said that she had put the kitties in my car. I said, "Are we supposed to have kitties in our car?" Apparently, Matthew had talked to this girl in our youth group and asked her for a couple of kittens for our barn...without telling me. I drove home with 2 very loud kitties in the front seat of my car. After talking to my mom about it, she suggested the names Janice and Darlene (Matt's mom's name). Janice and Darlene are now gone, but every day Finley would ask to go out and see Darnice (In the first week he put their names together). When he learned their separate names they were Danice and Darnene. One day, he saw Darlene playing in the cow's manure so he yelled, "Get out of the poop, Darnene!" Of course, Darlene's (Matt's mom) greatest fear was that Finley would go to church and tell everyone that Darlene was playing in poop. Sometimes I still remind her that she shouldn't play in poop.

mom's summer visit 2010

Matthew went on a 10-day discipleship trip with the teens in late July, so my mom came to help with the boys and hang out. It would have been a really long week had I not had her help! Thanks, mom!

Nana and Piper

Wait for it....

There we go! My favorite picture of both of them together to date!

a boy on his tractor...

Running down the driveway with Bo.

Climbing the fence to the cow pen. We spend a lot of time out there in the summer.

Standing next to the cow pen in the alley.

Piper 7 months old. He started crawling the week before Matthew left. He was about 6-1/2 months old...something his orthopedic doctor didn't think would happen until late because of the casting and the brace.

Some of my favorite pictures taken on the front porch.

Going for a walk down the road from the farm. This is an old abandoned farmstead, but the driveway is kind of kept up, so it's a nice private walk in the summer.

Our lazy day outside. We took a blanket outside and put it under a big tree and just relaxed as the boys played. This was the afternoon Finn saw a moth for the first time and didn't quite know what to call it since he knew it wasn't a butterfly. It flew away from him and he said, "Oh, poor that".

Ready for daddy to be home after 10 days! That's a really long time for a 2-1/2 year old to be missing his buddy and they got to play tractors when Matthew got home!