Phil Mickelson*

We potentially have a future PGA Tour golfer in the family!

Cale sunk a 45 foot putt during his outing at the golf course with Grandpa.

Way to go, Buddy!

*I thought Phil was the better choice. ;)

Last day of Preschool

Today is Cale's last day of Preschool... Kindergarten, here he comes!!

We had a parent/teacher conference last week with Cale's Preschool teacher, Mrs. Reburn. We came away as very proud parents! Everything she said was great...and she had some wonderful keepsakes to take home for our school days scrapbook. It was so nice to hear such great things! Sometimes I worry - does he act this way at school?! Whew! The answer is no, he's pretty perfect, but really... I already knew that! ;)

So, I can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon of your last day of Preschool than with your Grandpa! Grandpa Olson is going to pick Cale up, and they're going to have Grandpa's delicious scrambled eggs for lunch. Then they're headed to the golf course to hit some balls on the range, and possibly play a few holes. I'm sure there will be some football and fishing stories somewhere in there, too. Hope the guys have a great day - Can't wait to hear all about it!

**Added**
Since I missed the post about the first day of Preschool, here's the picture - So Proud of you, Cale!

Wow - look at these blondies!

Nice smile, Mar! :)

Copy Cat

Last night, the kids and I were playing a friendly game of Zingo (fabulous game if you're looking for one). At one point, the competition gets heated and Cale gives Maren a little push....

Maren's reaction: "CALE! That is not necessary!!" - shouted as well as an almost 3 year-old can say, necessary. :)

Ryan and I look at each other and just laugh.

Friends

It's been awhile. Time gets away and I forget to write it down, but this one is too good. I wish I would have gotten the audio....to play back years later.

Last night, Cale was testing his limits - because he's so good at it! He ended up in his room for the night at about 6:45. Then, for the next hour and 15 minutes, we heard, "Mommy is not my friend. Daddy is my friend, and Maren is my friend but not Mommy. Naughty, naughty Mommy."

Then he made his declaration: "Mommy, I'm not going to be your friend until the 3rd Thursday!"

He apologized when it was time for bed. Kissed me goodnight and added a great hug. I'm not sure if we're friends again though! LOL! :)

The obsession - attempting to recruit.

I received this e-mail from Vanessa (daycare) the other morning:

Cale to Ethan: "Do you want to know what teams I have helmets for?"

Ethan: "Sure."

Cale: "I have....... and, do you know what team I don't have? The Fighting Irish. They are the Fighting Irish, Ethan. Do you know the Fighting Irish?"

Watch out, Vanessa, he's going to try to get that farm boy addicted, too!

Our Football Star

I believe Cale was the Jacksonville Jaguars in this scene:

Of course, they won by 100 touchdowns!

Our boy is obsessed....

with FOOTBALL!

When he woke up this morning, he said:
Mom, 2 more days until...."Waitin' all day for Sunday night!"

He's been waiting patiently for his favorite song to come back on TV:


His next favorite song: The Star Spangled Banner

He learned all of the NFL teams from his football card collection and those darn helmets! Yes, our weak hearts caved for the sweet boy that "just wanted to learn all of the teams!"

He's spent countless HOURS looking at his football cards, and showing us his football cards, and asking us questions about his football cards, and asking to see Daddy's old football cards. He loves football, and we love him -- and I can't wait to show him this blog -- I can see him singing and dancing now! Any guesses to how many times we're going to watch that video?!

SuMmEr VaCaTiOn 2009!

We found a deal for a 3 night stay up North, at Chase on the Lake, that we couldn't pass up. One word: AWESOME!

First, we stopped at the MN Zoo with some old friends. Thanks for the fun, Stockdales & Charpentiers!

We arrived at our condotel on Sunday. The accomodations were well above our expectations, and this was the amazing view from our balcony.

While we were there, we enjoyed a morning out on the boat - although it was a bit chilly!

a lot of fishing - Ryan was a bit disappointed with the size, but we did catch quite a bit! Leech Lake is the 3rd largest lake in MN, so it's not real easy to go out on a boat and search for the best fishing spots.....without the fear of getting lost! We stuck pretty close to what we knew, and actually, Ryan's biggest catch was off the docks by the resort - of course, I didn't get a picture of that! Cale's favorite things were casting and throwing the fish back, but nothing is better than checking out Dad's tackle box - he could look in there for hours! I was constantly saying, be careful - those are SHARP!

In this picture, Cale is using Maren's Barbie fishing pole because he could cast that better. Towards the end of the trip, he was casting like a pro with his big SUPERman pole!

The kids had a blast on the beach...

...especially Maren - we made sure she wore her swimming suit after this!

We also enjoyed the indoor pool (the water was so warm!), city park & shops in Walker, and all of the beautiful scenery and wildlife. I especially enjoyed watching and listening to the Loons - a rare experience for this SE Minnesota girl! We hope we're lucky enough to return to Chase on the Lake next year -- and stay for a week!!

It's the simple things...

Yesterday I came home with a couple bags of new fall clothes for the kiddies. They are their mother's children - they love new clothes!

So, Cale is digging through the bag on our way home from daycare. First he pulls out the dinosaur sweatshirts - sooo cool. Then, he finds the underwear.... Dinosaur and Baseball underwear!!!!!!!!!!

This is what I heard for the next 7 miles:

"Mom, I really like these underwear."
"This underwear is so cool."
"I have dinosaur underwear."
"Maren, look at my underwear. Aren't they cool?"
"Maren, Maren, Maren." She finally decides to listen, "Do you like my new underwear?"
"Can I wear these to Vanessa's tomorrow?"
"These baseball underwear are so cool."
"Mom, can I get more underwear like this?"
"I'm going to tell Andrew about my dinosaur underwear."
"I really like these, Mom."
"Thank you, Mom. I like my new underwear."

...then we arrived home. Cale walked in the door, dropped trou, and tried on his new dinosaur and baseball underwear -- fit like a glove! We promptly threw them in the washing machine so he could wear his new underwear to Vanessa's today.

What we've been up to...

In May, we went to Dora Live and spent a few nights at a Holiday Inn waterpark in Owatonna.





On June 1, Maren turned 2! TWO - ALREADY! She's not a baby anymore!
*She loves playing babies and polly pockets - polly pockies, in two year-old slang.
*She's really getting into pretend play with the play kitchen - her specialties are mac and cheese and coocoos (cookies)... and when she's the Mom, she always has plenty of Dora fruit snacks for everyone!
*She's very much into: "me, mine, myself, my do it!"
*She finally has hair so she's into ponies (pony tails) and pretties (barrettes). And she loves wearing her pretty dresses and sandals, too!
*Her favorite thing to do right now is probably copy her big brother -- good in some ways - not so good in others (see previous post).
*We've started potty training but haven't gotten too serious yet. We tried underwear one day - 15 minutes, 3 changes...I think it was too early! :-)




In July, we've been relaxing and having fun:






As of yet, we don't have any big summer vacation plans, but we've been tossing out a few possibilities. North Shore? Dells? Maybe we'll just stick around here and save up for another time? I've finally taken up golf again, and I'm loving it...so we've been on the course as often as we can - taking days off here and there to take advantage of the irresistably nice days. All in all - Life is good!

Yeah, we're still here...

So, it's been awhile. We've been busy trying to effectively discipline a 4 year old and trying to prevent a 2 year old from copying the aforementioned 4 year old. Seriously, Y'all (that's for you, my southern friends), Parenting is hard work! Cale's latest logic: since Grandma and Grandpa are my Mom and Dad, that means I'm still a kid.... so, he doesn't have to listen to me! HA - good try, Honeybun!!

My guess on the latest score:
4 year old - 50
Parents - 5, but those 5 victories are oh-so-sweet!

It's kinda like golf: total frustration one minute, and the next, utter satisfaction! One of these days, we'll consistently hit it in the fairway, figure out how to chip, and sink the putts....Right?? Practice makes perfect - and lately, we've had A LOT of practice!

So, needless to say, the kids are growing up way too fast!!

**Apologies to my husband & family for not keeping up with the posts. I will strive to do better, I promise!

I forgive you.

It's been awhile, please forgive me... Cale would.

Yesterday, Cale's Sunday School lesson was about forgiveness. After we got home, Cale bumped into Maren. I told him to say sorry.

He told her, "I forgive you, Maren. That's what we learned at Sunday School."

Nice, Cale, but you're the one who bumped her, she's supposed to forgive you.

"Oh yeah... Maren, say I forgive you."

Family Art, by Cale

Cale has started drawing people. Here is our family along with the Grandmas and Grandpas. Ryan is the one with the orange face and pink curly hair. HA HA HA! :) I'm the purple person with the pink spiked hair. Cale is the little blue person below me - he's blue so he matches the Grandmas and Grandpas.... and Maren is the purple one with the pink forehead, standing on Dad's head. LOVE IT, Cale!

Weekend Conversation

Me: "Maybe tomorrow we can run to Austin."

Cale: "Mom, can we take the car?"

Me: "We'll probably take Mommy's car. Why do you want to take Daddy's car?"
(He calls Ryan's car, the car, and my car, the van.)

Cale: "No, Mom, Austin is too far to run!"

Me: "Oh, Yes! We won't run, we'll take the car to Austin. What was I thinking?!"

For those of you that don't know, Austin is about 30 miles from LeRoy... and for some people, that could be a possible run - not in my lifetime!

Gopher Fans...

Sometimes it's hard being a Gopher fan, but we'll always love Goldy!


















Jenna (3), Maren (19 months), Kendall (6 months), Cale (4)

Cale's first Christmas Program

Cale had his first Christmas Program tonight (postponed from December because of bad weather).
He did great! Here are a few pictures:

Cale's class:


The big group:


As soon as he saw the cameras begin to flash, he knew his mom had to be one in the crowd taking pictures. He spotted me right away and continued to say hello to everyone in our row.


Grandma and Grandpa came to the program - they leave for AZ tomorrow morning. Safe travels, Grandma & Grandpa, we're going to miss you!

Merry Christmas!

*We hope you're all experiencing the excitement and anticipation of Christmas as we are! Cale was so animated last year, I really can't wait to see him open his gifts this year. Maren will probably be interested in the first gift she opens and get bored with it after that. Cale keeps asking if he can help Maren open her gifts. Of course, she says "No" to everything you ask her, so we'll just have to wait and see.

*Only 2 days left on our sticker Advent calendar until Jesus' birthday! I can't tell you how many times we've heard "Happy Birthday to you" in the last month. It's part of Cale's class part for the Sunday School program, which was postponed on Sunday due to the weather. Guess we'll have to keep practicing those lines! Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you....

*Enjoy your families and have a blessed Christmas!

Breakfast with Santa

As we walked toward Santa, Maren clung to Ryan for dear life and screamed as if we were going to drop her there and run! Cale, of course, was all talk beforehand but was hiding behind me as we made our approach. So, this year, a family picture with Santa… and probably next year, too!

Happy 4th Birthday, Cale!!!!

Christmas Card Picture

Ha Ha Ha! My friend, Sarah, posted yesterday about trying to get a good picture for their Christmas Card. Great minds think alike - I attempted the same thing.

This pretty much sums up our success: