Summer's first Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Fergus Falls with the Tommerdahl crew.  It was a blast! Tucker had a GREAT time running around with his doggie cousins, Annie and Bode.  Here are some of the other  highlights:

Summer's first time making Lefse

The dessert table--YUM!

Summer's "twin"!  Jackson was born the exact same day as Summer and is Summer's 2nd cousin twice removed (or something like that!)  They both are at the stage where they are reaching and grabbing, so it was really cute when they found eachother's hands!

 Summer's first time sledding

Summer enjoyed nap time with Grandma

The Tommerdahl Fam at Stavanger Lutheran Church

Summer Updates

Summer is growing up!  I just packed away her newborn size onesies and sleepers yesterday and I can't believe she ever fit in them!  She goes in for her four month appointment next week.  I am curious to see how much she weighs!  Summer has been doing lots of new things.  She has starting laughing now!  It is my favorite!!!!  She is sooo cute!  I don't have it captured on video yet, but I will try :).  She also rolled over for the first time from front to back.  She surprised herself, and us!   She is "sort of" able to sit, but her face slowly gets closer and closer to the floor!  She is reaching and grabbing and holding things quite a bit now.  Here is a cute video showing how much she really loves to observe and reach for things as well as some other cute pictures.

"Sitting"

She loves looking in the mirror!

Remodeling Updates

I should update you on our little home project that turned out to be a very big home project!  I left you hanging last time with the news that we were tearing up the subfloor...

Tearing up the old Subfloor

Paul worked piece by piece tearing up the old subfloor and putting down the new subfloor so he had something to stand on.  There were still many times, however, where my palms sweated as he balanced on the floor joists many feet above our concrete basement floor while holding huge, heavy piece of the new subfloor.  Good thing he isn't afraid of heights!

Paul used our garage as his workshop as he cut pieces to fit.  This picture also shows the "old" door from our kitchen to our garage.  Our inspector told us when we bought the house that we needed to replace it with a fireproof door to bring the house up to code.  There is a picture of our new door later on.

Tucker supervising.

The subfloor is done!  Paul did such a thorough job with it, building "cripples" to support the floor where it was weak.  Now our floor doesn't squeak at all when you walk on it!  (It really used to squeak a LOT!)

Paul's parents were here for Summer's dedication and they worked on laying the laminate together.  They "signed" under one piece just for fun!

Laminate is done!

Baseboards are installed.  We still need to stain them.

Here is our new door with the first coat of red paint.  Paul did a super job of installing it.  It is a LOT harder than it looks to screw the hinges on so that the door swings straight and fits perfectly in the doorway.

Summer's Baby Dedication

This Sunday was a special Sunday for Summer and for us as it was Summer's baby dedication at our church.  Summer's dedication was a chance for us to publicly proclaim our desire and commitment to train Summer up in the ways of the Bible, choose a verse that expressed our desire for her life, and ask for people to commit to pray for our daughter.

We chose Colossians 1:9-12 as our prayer for Summer.  It starts out talking about us praying for her ever since we heard about her, which we did :), and then it goes on to ask God to help her to know how to please him and  have the strength to do so. 

We have noticed great strength in Summer---Physical strength (holding up her head in the first few weeks after birth, holding her weight on her legs only a few weeks later, etc...) as well as a strong will (it is amazing how long she can cry if she does not want to be napping!)  Our prayer for her is that this strength will be used for God's glory....that she will stand up for Truth even when it is not popular and proclaim the Good News of Jesus even when it is hard.  Colossians 1:11 expressed this prayer beautifully.

Here are a few picture of the occasion, as well as a video of her dedication.  We thank the Lord for our little girl!

 Our family that was able to support us by being at Summer's dedication (many more were with us in thought!)

3 month photo shoot

We had fun with our 3 month photo shoot!  Click here to see the album!  There are 18 pictures in all....which one do you think should be Summer's "official" 3 month picture?

(Paul's Note: If you'd like an original of any of the pictures, let us know - they'll be a bit clearer if we email them to you)

Summer is 3 months old! (And other news)

It is hard to believe that our little girl is now 3 months old!!!  Yikes!  The time goes so fast!  This month we have noticed her smiling a LOT, starting to talk (gurgle!), sleeping great at night, still loving bath time, starting to grab things, sucking on her fist, being much more content, loving books, and growing cuter by the day!

Here is a picture of her in her new 3 month outfit from Aunt Nancy and Amanda.

 I spent a while this week getting the leaves out of the yard (at least the ones that have fallen) and couldn't resist taking a few pictures of my kiddos playing in the piles!

Tucker: "Mommy, Mommy, look at all of this! How fun, How fun!  Ooooh what is that?, what is that?, what is that? I have to check out everything!  There's baby sister, hi baby sister!"

Summer: "Oooh. Look at that leaf! "

Tucker: "Ok mommy.  I'll sit for a second for you to take a picture."

Summer: "Tucker?  Sit???? I gotta see this!"

 Tucker: "Ok, I sat!  What are you holding mommy, what are you holding?"

Summer: "That doggie is a whirlwind!"

 

Kitchen Floor Update:  

After pulling up the many layers of floor, Paul determined that it would be necessary to replace the sub-floor as well because of how rotted it was.  Here is a picture of the sub-floor.

Here is a picture of the first piece of sub-floor removed.  Yup, that is our basement you can see.....YIKES! 

 

If you look carefully at the top middle of the picture, you can see Paul waving.  I took this picture from our new "two-story" basement.

 

You can see our laundry room shelf through the floor in this picture.