Miscellaneous

The days here are just flying by and I can't keep up! We've stayed busy and are hoping to stay cool these next few days!

Last Wednesday we took a trip to the Madison Zoo with our play date friends. This is the same group we went with two years ago, but this time it was a much better experience! It was a scorcher, but we were able to find ample shade and with lots of water breaks, the kids did great. Unfortunately I cannot find my camera that I brought with me to the zoo, so I'll have to post some pictures at a later date! Of course when we left the zoo and I asked Max and Mya what their favorite part was...their answer was "the stuffed animal we bought at the end." I could have taken them to Petco for that.

Over the weekend we were able to celebrate John Deere's 175th anniversary. The JD Dubuque works factory threw a LARGE and impressive party. Chris's parents were able to make the trip down for the celebration and it was definitely worth their drive. They opened up the factory for everyone to see, had equipment demonstrations, had a "mini Dubuque County Fair" right on site with bouncy houses, face painting, snow cones, cotton candy, spray-tattoo parlors, crafts, carnival games and more. I told Chris we were exempt from making our appearance at the fair now. We went home with more stuffed animals than I care to share and some very tired, yet happy kiddos. I really enjoyed seeing the forestry equipment in action because I've heard so much about them, but have never really seen it first hand. Pretty cool stuff. Again..pictures from this day are on the lost camera. Here's one of Max "working" at Chris's desk taken by a phone and one of the whole fam taken by the event group. I would also like to point out that this picture was scanned and e-mailed to me by my mother in law. She was not very confident in her "techy" skills, but pulled this off without a hitch:) The fact that it's sideways is not her fault..I can't figure out how to turn it for some reason!

 

Lastly, we made our semi-annual trip to the dentist yesterday. Normally our dental visits aren't blog-worthy, but this trip was. Apparently Max is a bit of a dental anomaly. He has not one, but THREE loose teeth and also has a tooth growing in behind his top teeth. After 2 different sets of x-rays, we found out that this is not one of his permanent teeth coming in, but rather an extra tooth. The dental hygienist said she has only seen 2 in her 26 years of working at this office. So...we have to see an oral surgeon tomorrow morning for a consult and then schedule an appointment to have it extracted. He will be completely put out for the surgery so it's not a quick fix. I'll add a picture on here soon. I haven't talked to my mom in person or over the phone about this yet, but I'm guessing at some point she will tell me that this is probably because I drank too much milk and ate too many vegetables when I was pregnant with him. ha ha:) That's pretty much what we blame most things on when it comes to Max. Hey...I took it literally when the book said to drink 3 glasses of milk and eat 5-7 servings of vegetables per day when expecting! Don't think Mya and Ivy are going to have those same problems:)

strawberry picking

This morning we drove over to Wisconsin (Vesperman Farms near Lancaster) for the 2nd annual Hoden/Finn family strawberry picking extravaganza! Last year our family alone picked 16 pounds and we were pretty sure that we would not be able to out-do that, but we somehow ended up with 17 pounds this year! Chris and I got them all cleaned tonight, but we haven't done anything else with them. I'm going to make some more strawberry jam (because now Max is a jam-snob and prefers his pb&j's made with homemade jam:) and probably freeze some others for smoothies throughout the year.

The strawberries seemed a lot dirtier this year because of the rain we got last night so there weren't as many consumed by the kids as last year. Chris receives the "picker of the year" award because he managed to pick a full bucket with Ivy on his back! She hung in there pretty well and only complained toward the end.

After we got our strawberries packed away in the car, the kids went down to see/feed the goats. I didn't go along, but Max and Mya were telling me about it tonight before bed. Apparently Mya didn't want to feed them, but Max was all about it. Mya started to tell me about some llama that had to stay in the barn because it was going to eat her?!? Not sure about that one...she was pretty exhausted so she wasn't making much sense!

For the Dubuquers reading this...they are opening in the fall for raspberry picking so make sure to "like" them on facebook to find out more details when it gets closer!















One more thing...when we got them all cut and washed, we ended up with 12 pounds of strawberries! Still a lot of strawberries, but we came to the conclusion that the kids weren't too selective in their picking:)

Swimming, Soccer and Swinging

This is a super random post, but I wanted to post some photos of some recent activities!

Last week we went swimming for the first time. I took all three kids by myself, but I met 4 other moms there so I had lots of help. I don't think I'll be able to take everyone unless I bring a sitter or I am meeting a few people who can help me out. The big 2 loved it. Max was able to do the slide all by himself this year and I felt very comfortable with him this year because of how well he did in swimming lessons this winter. He is still a little cautious which I love:) Mya and I did the slide together a few times, but she could have done it 100 times if I would have let her! Ivy seemed to enjoy the water, but she hated when she got splashed and could have done without the strap under her sun hat:)





Last Sunday we left the twin cities and drove straight home to try to get to the kids' first soccer practice/game by 4pm! It was a bit of a rat race and thank goodness Chris's brother Jeff was with us because he made a last second trip the sporting goods store to get some shin guards and socks for Mya (which she threw a fit and didn't wear anyway) and he helped us out at the fields with watching 2 kids, keeping them hydrated and keeping Ivy out of the sun! It took Mya a few minutes to warm up and Max went out there like he owned the place! They each had a little friend on their team so that helped out a lot.

 

And finally to the swinging...we went to the park this morning and I put Ivy in the swing and snapped a few pictures on my phone. She loved it as you can tell. We have a swing at home, but I don't get these faces at home. Must have been something about the park!

7 months

Ivy is 7 months old today! Man, I wish we could freeze time right.about.now. I just love this stage! She is sitting up, but still content to just sit and play with toys as long as they crinkle and are easy to suck on! She can get to where she wants to go by rolling and scooting, but as soon as she hits the hard floor, she quits. So, I think we have a couple more weeks before the baby gate comes back out!

She loves to eat baby food. Her favorites are apples, pears and prunes for fruit. Green beans, peas, sweet potatoes and carrots for vegetables. We think she might be allergic to squash because she broke out after eating it. She does not care for bananas and peaches which really surprises me because I think they taste the best!

Ivy is a super happy baby between the hours of 6am and 7pm. She will go to anyone and smiles almost non-stop. Max and Mya are still the best at making her laugh. She loves to be outside, go for stroller walks and isn't even that bad in the car. In fact...we occasionally use the car to get her to go to sleep! If you knew our other two kiddos when they were babes, you'd think it was crazy too that a kid would actually enjoy being in a car seat so much that they could fall asleep!

Nighttime isn't going so well these days. We decided it was going to be time to let her cry it out about a month ago and since then she has had 2 ear infections and has puked the other two times we've tried to let her cry it out. So...looks like we'll be going to plan B. (we're not sure what plan B entails just yet so stay tuned...:) It's making it really hard to get a babysitter because we have no idea what she's going to be like going to bed and she has decided in the last two weeks that bottles aren't for her so it has been rough.

Hope the next 5 don't go as fast as the last 7! Enjoy a few pictures from our very expressive little girl:)

Wonderful wedding weekend!

This weekend we were up in the twin cities for Chris's cousin Gretchen's wedding! Max was the ring bearer so that made it extra special for us. It was one of the busiest weekends ever and we are pretty exhausted tonight, but it was worth it!

Friday we left home around 12:00 in hopes of getting to the rehearsal by 4:30 in Shakopee, but that wasn't meant to be. We had to drop Chloe off in Decorah and then we totally forgot about Minneapolis traffic and summer road construction, so we ended up just meeting the wedding party and the rest of Chris's family at Buca di beppo for dinner! We had a wonderful 6 course meal and I don't think I have ever been that full! Max and Mya were great and Ivy only required one drive around the parking lot to get her to take a cat nap:) It was a late night, so the kids were really easy to get to sleep!

Saturday morning Chris and I got up to go for a run to burn off some of the 6 courses we ate the night before, but before we were even 2 minutes from home, we saw a turtle crossing the road so we had to go back and get Max and Mya to come and take a look! They loved it. I didn't love the run, but it felt good to get it out of the way.



The wedding was so nice. Grandpa Bill was able to walk Gretchen down the aisle and I know Bev was looking down from heaven on all of us the whole day. She would have been really proud. Max walked in with Savannah and she basically just told Max exactly what to do the whole time and it went great. There was one moment where he was peeking around the bride and groom trying to see the priest, but even that was pretty cute:) I had tears in my eyes when he was walking down the aisle...such a grown up little boy.







The whole "being in a wedding" thing was right up Max's alley. He was loving every second of it. Afterwards he got to ride in the "limbo" without a carseat (gasp) which was pretty much the best thing he has ever done in his life! He got to drink Sprite too! All of the wedding party took Max under their wing and were so nice to him. He was supposed to do a "Tebow" when he was introduced by the DJ, but he got scared at the last second and just walked in.


(notice Max in the back of the fraternity picture on the best man's shoulders:)



The dance brought out a side to Max and Mya that we have never seen before. Pure, utter craziness! Those two danced the entire time....wouldn't even take a break during the dollar dance! (Max has blisters to prove it:) It was so much fun to see them out there having a great time and dancing with anyone and everyone! We were especially proud of Mya because dancing with a stranger is not something you'd typically see her doing. She's usually a little more cautious than that, so it was great to see her let loose!



Below are some other favorites from before the wedding and at the reception.



















I made sure to pack pajamas for the way home because I had a feeling this would happen! What a fun weekend had by all! Thanks to Gretchen and Scott for letting us be a part of their day!

Summer is here!

This is the end of our first week of summer! It has taken us a few days to find our groove and I don't think we've totally found it yet, but we'll get there! It's a little bit of an adjustment with Max and Mya home every day and having a 6 month old who needs to nap both morning and afternoon! When school gets out for the big kids this week it will make it a little easier because there will be neighborhood kids around that they can play with while Ivy naps.

Max and I made a list of things we want to do this summer. He wants to go to the Madison Zoo, the cabin, grand harbor waterpark, have a lemonade stand, go to the pool a lot, camp in the backyard with the neighbor kids, and have lots of fires! I think we'll be able to manage those things.

Other news...Ivy has her second ear infection:( I'm really worried that she's going to be just like Max and have chronic ear problems until we eventually put tubes in her ears. If we can just keep her "cold-free" we might be able to avoid it, but I'm not holding my breath. She seems to be responding very well to the antibiotics and her ears cleared up the first time so hopefully the same thing happens this time. No teeth coming in yet which surprises me! Max had 4 teeth at 4 months and Mya got her first two teeth right at 6 months. Speaking of teeth...Max has his first loose tooth! He was complaining to me for a few days in a row that his teeth were hurting and I was really worried he might have a cavity. So finally I asked him to point to which tooth it was and sure enough, it was hurting because it was loose!

We got our family pictures taken last week. We scheduled them at 6:45pm to try to get the sun setting and peeking through the trees, but it ended up being a bit too cloudy to get that effect. We were still pleased with the outcome and as usual, Marie did a fantastic job with some not-so-well-behaved kids! I'll post some pictures when we get them.

Brian, Amanda, Grace and Livi came to stay with us this weekend. It's so fun to have the cousins together. They attempted to all sleep in the same room Friday night and it was a bit of a disaster. They didn't go to sleep until 10:00 and woke up at 5am!! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted:) We'll try again in a year or so. We had a great time with them being here!

Have a great week everyone! This coming weekend we're heading to Minneapolis to Chris's cousin's wedding. Max is the ring bearer so we're pretty excited for it!