Remember this?

Remember when we had this happen at my work last year?

Guess who's back? :) I'm thinking I'll have more ducky pictures this year. For the past few days she's been on the hunt for a good spot to make a nest in the courtyard again.

Vocab Update ...

An update on the words Paige is saying ... she's now added "cracker" and "backpack" to her list. She also says "eese" ... which I think is for both "cheese" and "please".

Enter at your own risk, Easter Bunny!

Hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Easter and was found by the Easter Bunny! The Easter Bunny did make it to our house, thankfully ... but we should have left him a note on the door that said "Enter at your own risk!"

After a few long days of Miss Paige being really sick, we found out on Saturday morning that she tested positive for Influenza B. Both Ryan and I, as strange as it may sound, were happy to hear that it was "just" influenza. They'd been looking for strep throat, a UTI, an obstructed bowel, and had done chest x-rays on her ... so hearing that it would get better in a few days was actually good news! Unfortunately, Riley also has it. But we're hoping that they're both on the upswing ... Paige was running around like a wild woman yesterday which is 180 degree difference from a two days ago and Riley's temp is hovering around normal to 101 instead of the 102-103 that it had been on Saturday.

































































































Before Riley got sick we thought that him and I would still be able to sneak out and go to the Easter Egg Hunt at my work. Well, that obviously didn't happen. Riley was so sad about missing the hunt AND missing out on Easter Brunch with his cousins ... so we did an Easter egg hunt at home instead. It certainly perked him up for a good 30 minutes or so.


















































































































Sunday morning we discovered that the Easter Bunny HAD been here. He came in through the patio door ... thanks to the snow we can see his tracks across the deck. He left a basket of candy/cracker type stuff for each of them .. plus a few extras! Riley was even more excited when Grandma Karen showed up (she was brave for coming into the germ house) with ANOTHER basket for each of them that the Easter Bunny had left at her house!

So there you have it .... our strange Easter. It felt really weird not going anywhere and not really having a big meal here. But I guess it is what it is.

Three Knudson facts/stories for the price of one ...

#1 ... Some of you have heard this story already but I still have to have it here for ME to remember in a year or two ...

I picked Riley up from daycare on Thursday and Shelley was smirking at me. She told me she'd heard an interesting story that day ... Riley told her that my "boyfriend" lived in the country. EEK! Stop ... what was that? Yes, it seems as if Riley told Shelley that my boyfriend "Jim" lived out in the country. After a little digging and some more info from Riley ... like the fact that his daddy's "girlfriend" Auntie Tammy lived in the cities ... she realized that Riley actually meant that my BROTHER Jim lived in the country. I was glad to get that one straightened out. :)

#2 ... Paige had a new word this weekend ... cracker. She's rather proud of herself too and likes to give you five after saying it.

#3 ... Is there something wrong when your 4 year old fits into your 17 month old daughters sweatshirt? Or should I forget about it fitting and worry more about the fact that Riley put this on all on his own with no prodding from me?






























Happy St. Patty's Day!

Busy Saturday ... Lazy Sunday!

As of today (party at daycare) I think all the birthday celebrations will finally be done and over with. Saturday we had a house full of people for Riley's family party.

Riley had a GREAT time and was spoiled with tons of gifts. He's opened and played with every single thing he was given already ... the kid's in heaven! It was great to have everyone together again. (And yes, that was his invitation.)

I only got a couple pictures. That seems to be the way it goes ... I get so busy trying to talk to everyone or make sure there's enough food out that I forget to pick up my camera. I'm seriously thinking about offering a photography package where I'd come and shoot your child's birthday party. I know I'd like someone to come and do that for me. Ha ha.

We crashed after everyone left the party. Grandma and Grandpa Knudson left early Sunday morning and we didn't do much of anything the whole day. It was nice!


Paige warmed back up to her usual self by Sunday afternoon. She'd just been "off" all weekend long. She didn't even want to sit and eat dinner on Friday night when we went out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa K. For those of you who know Paige, THAT'S unusual. Anyway, her and daddy were playing around on our bed (and eventually, Riley wanted to know where we'd all disappeared to and got in on the action) and I got a few cute pictures ...











ETA ~ If you can't see, her shirt says, "Princess in training, waiting for my crown." How TRUE!

Chicago Recap ...

I've gotten a couple of e-mails from people asking how my weekend in Chicago went so I thought I'd make note of it on here. For those of you who don't know, I got an amazing opportunity to head to the Windy City for a weekend and shoot with a great group of gals ... who just also happen to be great photographers.

We had two bridal shoots, one engagement/couple shoot and a double kid shoot ... all in one day. It was very tiring but it was something I'd do again in a heartbeat! I just can't express how blessed I am to have spent a weekend with these ladies.

To see a (very small) sample of some of the stuff I shot you can go to http://www.knudsonphotoanddesign.zenfolio.com/ and click on the "Chicago" folder. That's not even the tip of what I shot though. I just haven't had enough time to edit. I'll post four of my favorites below ...

Yes, we really did make her get up on the grass median on Michigan Ave. It was hilarious to hear all the things being shouted at her from people walking/driving by.

Bye Bye 3!

Four. FOUR!! Can you believe it? Today my oldest "baby" turned FOUR! The past year was one of change for Riley ... the biggest one being preschool. We had a conference with the teacher on Monday to go over his progress ... and she had great things to say about him. There were some things she mentioned where I was wondering if she was really talking about MY Riley ... but other things were so dead on it wasn’t even funny ... like his talkative personality. Ha ha. Yes, he can talk to anyone until he’s blue in the face.


I tried to make today special for him. We went out to the mall and he and Paige got to play in the children’s area. He got his favorite, mac-n-cheese, for lunch. I made him a cake that HE got to load up with sprinkles. He got to pick where we went out for dinner ... McD’s ... obviously. And while we were sitting there eating, I looked at Ryan and said, "Let’s take him bowling!" We have a place right down the road ... why not? So we stopped by home for mom to get her camera ... and we surprised him by going bowling. The little fart did pretty well. He even picked up a spare in the 10th frame. If you look at the last picture, you’ll see the scores ... He was the top one, mom was the middle and Ryan was the bottom one on the screen. Daddy was a little worried after Riley picked up that spare that Riley might beat him.

What Paige did during most of the bowling experience ...

Busy, Busy!!

Just like everyone else, we've been busy!! Gosh, I honestly don't even know where to start!

We had an excellent Valentines Day. My mom had been generous enough to take care of the kids the Friday before so Ryan and I could head out to dinner by ourselves. We went to a new place in town called HuHot. YUM ... it was so good! Since we'd been out by ourselves already, we invited my mom over for dinner the night of Valentines Day. Riley talked her ear off ... there's something about my mom that makes him just talk nonstop. I've noticed it the past few times we've been over to her house. :)

The big news in our house right now is that Riley's birthday is in two weeks. He'll soon be 4!! My gosh where has the time gone. His latest "thing" is picking out his own clothes. Last Friday he wore green running pants, light blue socks with tractors on them and a blue spiderman long sleeved shirt topped with a white/blue/red dirt bike short sleeved shirt. I couldn't help but smile when I looked at him. We met Leah and her two kiddo's for dinner at McDonalds that night since both daddy's were gone at work/school and I casually mentioned that he'd picked out his own clothes so she didn't think I was losing it.

Miss Paige is becomming such an independent little person. She likes doing tasks. When we get home from being out, she takes her hat/mittens off and puts them in the correct basket. She likes throwing things away (but confuses the hamper in her bedroom and the garbage so you really need to watch her). And in the past week or so she's discovered that if she stands on the stool in the bathroom she can see herself in the mirror. Even better ... if she does it while mom is getting ready in the morning, she can reach mom's make-up brushes. :) She grabs my blush brush and pretends to put it all over her face and then we all tell her how pretty she is. She thinks she's hot stuff.

A word update on Miss Paige ... she now says hot, daddy, mommy, puppy, uh oh, done and hi. Her three favorite words are daddy, puppy and hi. Daddy we hear quite a bit ... she knows she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger and uses that to her advantage. Puppy ... she adores Pumba and shows her affection with some slaps to his head. And hi ... well, for a while she'd look at you and say, "hi!" over and over and in just about every voice tone that she had. It was pretty cute.

I've got a pretty big weekend coming up. I'm going to a little photographers get together in Chicago Feb 29-March 2. The wonderful Krystal Muellenberg and Kate Crafton are just two of the gals I'm hoping to bombard with my photography questions. I feel like I've already learned a ton from them without even meeting them face to face ... I have a feeling that after this weekend with them I'm going to be either amazed at everything I learned or depressed about how much I still NEED to learn. And as a side note, Krystal has offered to let me second shoot three weddings with her this summer in LaCrosse. I'm super pumped about everything happening with my photography and hope that this is really a time of growth for me.

And just because I hate posting without pictures ... here are two for you ...

Riley and daddy when we did a little snowshoeing in Goosebury Falls State Park.

Could these lips BE any bigger? LOL

Yes, I've been ignoring this thing ...

I feel horrible. I've been knowingly ignoring this blog. I feel bad posting when I can't include pictures ... and I've just had no time to work on any pictures of the kids. So I've been putting off posting ... but today I figured I'd just do an update post. And who knows, maybe it'll kick my butt into gear and MAKE me work on pictures tonight. :)

Recent Travels

We've been trying to make sure the kids don't get stuck in the house too much lately so we've been trying different activities. A couple of weekends ago we traveled to the Mall of America to meet up with Steve, Charina, Grace and "the fetus still to be named" (a quote from Steve's Christmas letter ... Charina is due at the end of March with their second ). We went to Underwater Adventures first. Riley got a kick out of it ... and Paige enjoyed it but was more concerned with making sure she had some crackers to snack on. After the aquarium, we got something to eat and snuck in a few rides. Riley insisted that he wanted to go on the water ride where you go around in a hollowed out log and then drop down at the end ... I wasn't so sure how he'd do ... but he LOVED it. The first time he went on with Ryan and the second time with me. Both times he was laughing his head off. He also wanted to go on the roller coaster but he wasn't quite tall enough. I think we have a dare devil on our hands.

Last weekend we headed up to Two Harbors to celebrate Ryan's parents 40th wedding anniversary with them and Ryan's sisters family. We stayed at the Larsmont Cottages and had our very own little cabin with a view of Lake Superior from the front windows. We spent the weekend snowshoeing, cross country skiing, swimming and just hanging out. Oh, and Clint, Riley and Grandpa all went and dunked their feet in Lake Superior so that Riley would have something to tell all of his friends.

Riley

Riley is doing well. I've been pretty impressed with his behavior lately. I think he's finally grown out of the terrible three's (terrible two's were nothing!) and he's actually enjoyable to be around now. That makes it sound like he was horrible ... he wasn't ... but it's just amazing how he's growing and maturing.

He's been very interested in time lately. He likes to ask what time it is, wants you to point out on the clock where the hands will be when it's his bedtime and picks up on times that are announced on the news/radio. It's kind of funny because he'll just randomly ask what time it is when we're out shopping and after you tell him he just says, "oh" like he understands exactly what 1:30 means. Ha ha.

Paige

Paige is showing signs of a little bit of an attitude. I'm scared for what is ahead of us. :) She's also been doing something that's kind of embarassing to her mom and dad. If we tell her no or she doesn't get her way on something, she'll drop to the ground and bang her forhead on the floor. It's the strangest thing and we have no idea where she picked it up from. She's done it for a while now. It's just embarassing when other people see it and look at us like "where the heck did she learn that?" If any of you have children who have done the same and have any tips for us, comments would be appreciated! :)

She's really shown an interest in books lately. I love reading (when I have time) and grew up reading new books all the time ... I love that she's showing an interest in books all on her own. As of right now we don't necessarly read from front to back, but I let her open the book to whatever page she wants and read what's there. I'm sure it also helps that we have a bookcase overflowing with books from her brother. Though, I should maybe work on getting some girlie books in there ... not that there's anything wrong with John Deere, Spiderman or truck books. :)

And on a total girlie note ... Paige got her first haircut last Thursday. I didn't have them take too much off but they evened it up all around and cut her bangs just a touch so they were swept off to the side and didn't hang in her eyes so much. I've managed to get pigtails (or devil horns as Ryan says) in her hair a few times now. It's so cute I can't help but laugh when I look at her.

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That's basically the update from our house. Paige got sick yesterday at daycare and has the beginnings of a cold I believe. We had such horrible winds yesterday though I didn't mind being home. There were blizzard conditions yesterday ... and now today we're left with freezing cold temps. Schools let out early yesterday and canceled for today. The house was creeking and popping quite a bit last night between the wind and cold. I love living in MN so that we can experience all four seasons ... but this is a bit extreme!

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to sit at my desk tonight and work on a few pictures to back up the above stories. Stay warm everyone!

Welcome to the world, Baby Layla!

Isn't a new baby just so much fun?

Good friends and neighbors of ours, Jason and Leah, had a girl on Monday morning. Layla Marie was born around breakfast time and came into the world healthy as could be.

I had the joy of being the one who went to stay with older brother, Micah, when they went to the hospital. Ryan got a call from Jason about 9:30 on Sunday night giving us a warning that Leah was having contractions and by 10:40 I was getting last minute instructions from Leah right before they headed in.

It was so fun to see the pre-labor stages from the other side. I haven't ever had the chance to be with a friend as they start the labor process. It was fun to be part of that excitement, all the while still knowing that I don't have sleepless nights ahead of me. And while there is nothing that could ever take the place of welcoming another son or daughter in the world ... I think I'll stick with being a supportive friend for now. :)

So Riley and I headed into town last night for some gifts for Layla and Micah (can't forget big brother!!) and while we were in the car Riley was very intent on understanding this whole baby thing.

"Mom, I'm older than Micah."
"Yes Riley. You're about a year older than Micah."
"And mom?"
"Yes?"
"Paige is older than Layla."
"Yes."
"And I'm older than Layla."
"Yes."
"And Micah is older than Layla."
"Yes."
"And Micah is older than Paige."
"Yes Riley."
"But Layla isn't older than me."

.... and we repeated ALL over. He's been quite the chatterbox lately ... very much into asking question upon question until he's sure he understands. It's good for later in life ... but currently is driving mommy and daddy bonkers. :)